The Rebirth of Virtuals Protocol: The Transformation from a Blockchain Game Project to an AI Intelligent Agent Platform

In June 2025, the crypto world witnessed a grand reconfiguration of wealth: the new project IRIS made its debut with an initial valuation of $200,000 through a genesis launch platform of a certain protocol, and subsequently, its market cap soared to $80 million, setting a new industry high with a 400-fold increase. This performance not only far surpassed previous growth records but also made other popular projects in the ecosystem look pale in comparison. As the driving force behind this myth, the platform token VIRTUAL achieved a 400% growth within six months, with its market cap peak exceeding $5 billion. Today, the platform has become the largest AI agent launch platform on a certain network. Behind this carnival lies an experiment in wealth distribution restructured based on contribution rules, quietly reshaping the speculative logic and value order of the crypto market.

01. Rebirth from the Ashes: From Gaming Guilds to AI Intelligent Agent Platform

Virtuals Protocol is a decentralized platform deployed on a Layer-2 network, dedicated to creating an on-chain AI agent economy that enables users to easily create, collectively own, and monetize autonomous AI roles. Its predecessor was a gaming guild established in Malaysia in 2021. The guild initially focused on Play-to-Earn projects and the NFT community, successfully raising approximately $16 million through precise positioning in popular gaming projects, with a valuation once approaching $600 million, accumulating rich gaming assets and an active player community. However, the bear market in 2022 severely impacted GameFi, causing the guild's token price to plummet nearly 99%, with its market value shrinking to less than $6 million. The team attempted multiple business lines but all failed, bringing the project to the brink of being shelved.

By the end of 2023, the wave of generative AI swept the globe, and the concept of AI agents became a new trend in the crypto space. Guild communities voted on-chain via DAO (with a support rate as high as 90%) to resolve to completely transform into an AI-driven protocol and rebranded as Virtuals Protocol, shifting their core strategy to "assetizing, tokenizing, and empowering the community with AI intelligent agents." This transformation is based on profound insights: the team discovered that the Japanese virtual idol market is huge, but creators receive less than 20% of the revenue; at the same time, experiments on a certain platform proved that AI-driven NPCs could increase player retention rates by about three times. These two data points directly led to the positioning of Virtuals as "profitable AI personas."

In October 2024, Virtuals launched on a certain network mainnet and introduced the first multimodal AI agent - virtual idol Luna. Luna integrates text generation, 3D motion, voice synthesis, and smart contract wallet technologies, enabling it to autonomously raise operational funds and distribute rewards to fans. After its launch, Luna quickly gained 500,000 followers on social media, and its monthly income from fan tips reached $1.2 million, 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.

With the successful momentum of projects like Luna, Virtuals launched its core token VIRTUAL on multiple trading platforms and a certain network by the end of 2024. Its price skyrocketed from a few cents to a historic 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 barrier, 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 about $500,000, the system will release a liquidity layer on the decentralized exchange, ensuring 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 nurtured over 80% of the AI agents on the chain, and its generative multimodal agent framework G.A.M.E has also become a popular choice for agents in the Web3 gaming and metaverse fields. However, the vision of Virtuals goes far beyond becoming the leader in AI agent issuance. 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 key to Virtuals achieving this grand goal, and will be a focus for its development for a long time to come.

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

In order to attract more user attention, Virtuals has innovatively introduced the "Genesis Launch" mechanism to issue AI agent tokens. Unlike traditional linear airdrops or fixed issuance, the Genesis Launch is based on the concept of "contribution points (Virgen Points)", emphasizing participation and contribution rather than pure speculation. Once launched, the Genesis Launch quickly became a sensation online, and Virtuals has become a new hotspot for speculators eager to participate in token launches, with even seasoned speculators discussing how it could replace the once-popular "Alpha airdrop" model. Unlike traditional airdrops that distribute all at once, often leading users to sell immediately, the Genesis Launch emphasizes "contribution equals distribution", providing everyone the opportunity to participate in new coin subscriptions based on real input. Almost every day in the official community of the Virtuals Protocol, members can be seen sharing screenshots of their earnings from participating in launches using Virgen Points, showcasing popular tokens. This open and transparent rule and threshold have completely overturned the situation of "wealthy individuals monopolizing, while retail investors are left out".

Taking IRIS as an example, the project launched its pre-sale in mid-May, locking in over 120 million points in less than 24 hours, with a subscription overshoot of 1500%, allowing tens of thousands of users to share 37.5% of the community shares. On the day of its listing, the market value of IRIS soared from $200,000 to $80 million, with an increase of over 400 times, setting a new industry record for AI Agent issuance, and instantly dimming the spotlight on previously popular projects in other ecosystems.

The reason why Genesis Launch was able to rapidly gain popularity lies in its construction of a "incentive-contribution-reward" closed loop. First, users can earn basic VirgenPoints by staking VIRTUAL or holding the highly sought-after AI Agent tokens within the ecosystem, such as Luna and AIXBT. Secondly, users can accumulate more points by participating in social promotion ("Yapping"), trading on the platform, or staking tokens from other projects. In this way, whether you are a technical novice or an experienced trader, you can find a suitable way to contribute through financial investment or content promotion, greatly stimulating community activity and innovation.

In stark contrast, traditional airdrops often rely solely on token snapshots or complicated tasks. Users tend to sell the tokens on the same day they receive them. According to a data platform, over 90% of airdropped tokens see a price drop within 15 days of issuance, with a retention rate of less than 12% after three months. In contrast, the Genesis Launch utilizes a point locking + punitive cooling mechanism: if the newly acquired tokens are sold within 24 hours of unlocking, it will trigger a zeroing of points for 10 days, significantly curbing the arbitrage behavior of "sheep shearing" and encouraging participants 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 won't be any awkward situations of "unable to buy" or "unable to sell" on the exchange or decentralized trading platform. To prevent large holders or bots from occupying a significant share through multi-wallet tactics, the Genesis Launch sets a cap of no more than 0.5% of the total issuance for each address and employs an on-chain randomization algorithm to further balance distribution, ensuring that small and medium users can also reap considerable shares.

The success of the Virtuals new token issuance model lies not only in the popularity of the new token issuance but also in the "old brings new" effect of the Virtuals ecosystem 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 average daily trading volume of VIRTUAL on the chain has exceeded $150 million, an increase of over 80% compared to May; at the same time, holding and staking VIRTUAL to obtain veVIRTUAL governance tokens also allows users to continue earning additional VirgenPoints, resulting in a large number of users locking up their assets to 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 strong interest in this new mechanism of "contribution in exchange for returns." In June 2025, the world's first perpetual contract with VIRTUAL as the underlying asset was launched on a certain platform, supporting leveraged trading of up to 2000 times. On the first day of its launch, the contract's transaction volume exceeded $700 million, strongly conveying a signal: Virtuals are becoming a new target for speculation and hedging in the eyes of institutional investors.

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

In the future planning of Virtuals Protocol, every technological upgrade and mechanism innovation aims to make the outline of the "AI Sovereign Society" increasingly clear. In the initial phase, Virtuals was merely a platform for issuing AI agents, quickly gathering a group of enthusiastic developers and users through token economic mechanisms such as locking liquidity and buyback destruction. As hundreds of AI agent projects took off, agents began to operate independently and autonomously generate revenue in scenarios such as gaming, content creation, and market analysis. Users were no longer just spectators, but became co-builders and beneficiaries. The Genesis Launch connected project growth and community participation with 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 enables each AI agent to migrate freely across multiple networks through open SDKs 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 to gain governance rights and share transaction fees and repurchase dividends, merging the identities of "participants" and "owners" in the token economy. All of this is constructing 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 Genesis Launch of a certain network was listed with a 1500% oversubscription rate, with its market value skyrocketing 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 surpassing $120 million; the hedge fund format VADER has been steadily operating in a cross-chain environment, with a market value exceeding $100 million... These figures not only reflect the feasibility of the agent business model but also prove that the "AI agency economy" is transitioning from theory to reality.

With the continuous maturity 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 power and economic rights, participating alongside humans in production, governance, and even cultural creation. Virtuals will no longer be a simple platform, but is instead nurturing a new type of society from the ground up, one characterized by the coexistence and co-governance of countless AIs and humans—this is the true ecological evolution, and the thrilling leap towards an "AI sovereign society" has only just begun.