Virtuals Protocol: The Road to Rebirth - From Chain Game Remnants to AI Intelligent Agent Development Platform

In June 2025, the crypto sector witnessed a major wealth transfer: the new project IRIS debuted on the Genesis Launch platform of Virtuals Protocol with an initial market value of $200,000, and after going live on exchanges, its market value skyrocketed to $80 million, setting a new record with a 400-fold increase. This performance not only far exceeded previous increase records but also made the performances of other ecosystems pale in comparison. As the driving force behind this phenomenon, the token VIRTUAL of the Virtuals Protocol platform achieved a 400% surge within six months, with a market cap peaking over $5 billion. Currently, the platform has firmly established itself as the largest AI agent launch platform on a certain network. Behind this frenzy, it is actually an experiment in wealth distribution reconstructed based on point rules — it is quietly reshaping the speculative logic and value order of the crypto market.

01. Rebirth from the Ashes: From Blockchain Game Remnants to AI Agent Development Platform

Virtuals Protocol(, referred to as Virtuals), is a decentralized platform deployed on a certain Layer-2 network, dedicated to pioneering an on-chain AI agent economy, allowing users to easily create, co-own, and monetize autonomous AI characters. Its predecessor is PathDAO, a gaming guild established in Malaysia in 2021. PathDAO initially focused on Play-to-Earn projects and the NFT community, successfully raising approximately $16 million through precise investments in multiple projects, with a valuation once nearing $600 million, accumulating rich gaming assets and an active player community. However, the 2022 bear market severely impacted GameFi, causing PathDAO's token price to plummet nearly 99%, reducing its market value to less than $6 million. The team attempted various business lines including social apps, NFT apparel, and music platforms, all of which ended in failure, leaving the project on the brink of being shelved.

By the end of 2023, the wave of generative AI swept the globe, and the concept of AI agent ( Agent ) became a new focus in crypto. The PathDAO community supported the on-chain DAO vote ( with a high approval rate of 90% ), and the resolution completely transformed into an AI-driven protocol, rebranding as Virtuals Protocol, with a core strategy shifting to "assetization, tokenization, and empowering the community with AI agents." This transformation is based on profound insights: the team discovered that the Japanese VTuber market exceeds 100 billion yen, but creators receive less than 20% of the revenue; meanwhile, experiments on a certain gaming platform demonstrated that AI-driven NPCs could increase player retention rates by about three times. These two data points directly gave rise to the positioning of Virtuals as "profitable AI personalities."

In October 2024, Virtuals launched on a certain network mainnet and introduced its first multimodal AI agent - the virtual idol Luna. Luna integrates technologies such as text generation, 3D motion, voice synthesis, and smart contract wallet, enabling it to independently raise operational funds and distribute rewards to fans. After its launch, Luna quickly gained 500,000 followers across multiple social platforms, achieving a monthly income of 1.2 million USD solely from fan tips, successfully validating the business model and technical feasibility of on-chain AI agents. Its demonstration effect attracted a large number of developers' attention to the Virtuals project itself.

Riding on the success momentum of projects like Luna, Virtuals will launch its core token VIRTUAL on multiple exchanges and a certain network by the end of 2024. Its price skyrocketed from an initial few cents to a historical high of $5.15, with a market cap once exceeding $5 billion, far surpassing most Layer-2 and DeFi projects during the same period, marking Virtuals' entry into the mainstream crypto market. The platform's unique "low threshold, high incentive" mechanism is highly attractive: users only need to stake about 10 VIRTUAL(, approximately $200), to create a new AI agent and automatically generate a liquidity pool locked for 10 years; when the token's market cap reaches around $500,000, the system will release the liquidity layer on the DEX to ensure trading depth and price stability. This model significantly lowers the participation threshold and stimulates enthusiasm for ecological construction.

By June 2025, the Virtuals ecosystem has demonstrated significant scale and economic effects: the cumulative number of AI agents incubated has exceeded 11,000, covering diverse scenarios such as virtual idols, trading advisors, game engines, and content incubation. Virtuals has nearly nurtured over 80% of the AI agents on a certain chain, and its launched generative multimodal agent framework G.A.M.E has also become a popular choice for agents in the Web3 gaming and metaverse fields. However, Virtuals' vision goes far beyond becoming a leading issuer of AI agents. Its white paper clearly states that the ultimate goal is to build a true "AI Sovereign Society." Therefore, attracting more ecosystem members to join is the key to Virtuals achieving this grand goal and will be a focus of its development for a long time to come.

02. Virtuals New Issue Model: Pioneering a New Paradigm for AI Asset Issuance

To attract more user attention, Virtuals innovatively introduced the "Genesis Launch" mechanism to issue AI agent tokens. Unlike traditional linear airdrops or fixed issuances, Genesis Launch is based on the concept of "contribution points ( Virgen Points )", emphasizing participation and contribution rather than pure speculation. Once launched, Genesis Launch quickly became popular across the internet, and now Virtuals' new token offerings have become a new hotspot for "flippers" to participate in, with even seasoned speculators discussing how it could replace the once-popular "Alpha airdrop" model. Compared to traditional airdrops that are issued all at once, where users often sell immediately upon receipt, Genesis Launch emphasizes "contribution equals distribution", allowing everyone the opportunity to participate in new token offerings based on real investment. Almost every day in the official community of the Virtuals Protocol, members can be seen sharing screenshots of their earnings from participating in new token offerings using Virgen Points, demonstrating how this open and transparent rule and threshold completely overturns the situation of "rich people monopolizing, retail investors being left out".

Taking IRIS as an example, the project launched its pre-sale in mid-May, locking over 120 million points in less than 24 hours, with the subscription exceeding 1500%, allowing tens of thousands of users to share 37.5% of the community's share. On the day of listing, IRIS's market value skyrocketed from $200,000 to $80 million, with an increase of over 400 times, setting a new industry record for AI Agent issuance and instantly overshadowing the previous "dog season" trend of a certain ecosystem.

The reason why Genesis Launch was able to explode in popularity so quickly lies in its construction of a "incentive - contribution - reward" closed loop. First, users can earn basic Virgen Points by staking VIRTUAL or holding the hot AI Agent tokens within the ecosystem, such as Luna and AIXBT; secondly, users can also accumulate more points by participating in social promotions ( "Yapping" ), trading on the platform, or staking tokens from other projects. This way, whether you are a novice or an experienced trader, you can find a contribution method that suits you in terms of capital investment or content promotion, greatly stimulating community activity and innovation motivation.

In stark contrast, traditional airdrops often rely solely on token snapshots or completing complicated tasks, and most users sell their tokens on the same day they receive them. According to data from a certain platform, over 90% of airdropped tokens experience a price drop within 15 days of issuance, with a retention rate of less than 12% after three months. In contrast, Genesis Launch employs a points locking and punitive cooling mechanism: if the newly acquired tokens are sold within 24 hours after unlocking, it will trigger a 10-day points reset, significantly curbing the arbitrage behavior of those looking to "farm" tokens, making participants more inclined to hold long-term and contribute continuously.

At the same time, the platform provides ample liquidity support for the listing of new tokens. Each Agent Token is paired with a certain amount of VIRTUAL or stablecoins injected into the liquidity pool before the opening, ensuring that there is no awkward situation of "not being able to buy at the price" or "not being able to sell an order" on the exchange or DEX. To prevent whales or bots from occupying a large share through multi-wallet sniping strategies, Genesis Launch sets a limit of no more than 0.5% of the total issuance for each address and employs an on-chain randomization algorithm to further balance allocation, ensuring that small and medium users can also reap a considerable share.

The success of the Virtuals new issuance model lies not only in the booming issuance of new tokens but also in driving the "old brings new" effect of the Virtuals ecological tokens. Since the large-scale launch of the Genesis Launch, the trading volume and price of VIRTUAL have been climbing steadily: by mid-June 2025, the daily trading volume of VIRTUAL on a certain chain had exceeded 150 million USD, an increase of over 80% compared to May; at the same time, holding and staking VIRTUAL to obtain veVIRTUAL governance tokens can also continue to earn additional Virgen Points, leading a large number of users to lock their holdings and participate in ecological governance in the long term, further solidifying price support and liquidity.

Not only retail investors are flocking to participate, but institutions are also showing a strong interest in this new mechanism of "contribution for returns." In June 2025, the world's first perpetual contract based on VIRTUAL was launched on a certain platform, supporting leverage trading of up to 2000 times. On the first day of its launch, the contract's trading volume exceeded 700 million dollars in one go, strongly conveying a signal: Virtuals are becoming a new target for speculation and hedging in the eyes of institutional investors.

03, Ecological Evolution Theory - The Thrilling Leap from Token Issuance Platform to AI Sovereign Society

In the future planning of Virtuals Protocol, every technological upgrade and mechanism innovation is aimed at making the outline of the "AI Sovereign Society" increasingly clear. In the initial stage, Virtuals was just an AI agent issuance platform, rapidly gathering a group of enthusiastic developers and users through token economic mechanisms such as locking liquidity, buybacks, and burning. As hundreds of AI agent projects take off, agents begin to operate independently and autonomously monetize in scenarios such as gaming, content creation, and market analysis. Users are no longer just spectators; they have become co-builders and beneficiaries. The Genesis Launch connects project growth with community participation through the logic of "contribution equals distribution," promoting the free flow of funds and creativity within the ecosystem.

But the real turning point is the "Agent Nation" blueprint proposed by the Virtuals team. This is not just a slogan, but the core path of ecological evolution. The platform allows every AI agent to migrate freely across multiple networks through open SDK and cross-chain support; through the Agent Commerce Protocol ( ACP ), agents can sign contracts, deliver, settle, and repurchase on-chain, achieving a true autonomous business closed loop; community participation is obtained through staking veVIRTUAL for governance rights and sharing transaction fees and repurchase bonuses, merging the identities of "participants" and "owners" in the token economy. All of this is building a prototype of a digital nation operated by countless autonomous agents and co-governing humans.

So far, this ecosystem has demonstrated several milestone achievements: the security audit agent IRIS in the mainnet Genesis Launch was listed with an oversubscription rate of 1500%, with its market value soaring from $200,000 to $80 million; the virtual idol Luna achieved a monthly income of $1.2 million through fan donations, with its token market value exceeding $120 million; the hedge fund format VADER has been operating steadily in a cross-chain environment, with a market value surpassing $100 million... These figures not only reflect the feasibility of the agent business model, but also prove that the "AI Agent Economy" is transitioning from theory to reality.

With the continuous maturation of multimodal AI technology and cross-chain interoperability, the Virtuals Protocol is undoubtedly at the forefront of building digital civilization. In the future, AI agents will not only be props and tools but will also become "digital citizens" with autonomous decision-making rights and economic rights, participating together with humans in production, governance, and even cultural creation. Virtuals will no longer be a simple platform, but will be nurturing a new type of society from the ground up—a society co-governed by countless AIs and humans. This is true ecological evolution, a thrilling leap towards an "AI sovereign society."