From Chain Game Remnants to AI Agent Issuance Platform: The Transformation Journey of Virtuals Protocol

In June 2025, the crypto world witnessed a grand migration of wealth: the new project IRIS made its debut with an initial market value of $200,000 through a certain issuance platform, and subsequently, its market value skyrocketed to $80 million, setting a new industry record with a 400-fold increase. This performance not only far exceeded previous increase 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 staggering 400% surge within six months, with its market value peaking at over $5 billion. Now, the platform has firmly established itself as a major AI agent launch platform on a certain network. Behind this nationwide celebration lies an experiment in wealth distribution restructured based on point rules, quietly reshaping the speculative logic and value order of the crypto market.

Ruins Reborn: From the Remains of Chain Games to AI Intelligent Agent Issuance Platform

Virtuals Protocol is a decentralized platform deployed on a Layer-2 network, dedicated to pioneering the on-chain AI agent economy, enabling users to conveniently create, co-own, and monetize autonomous AI roles. 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 due to its precise layout in popular gaming projects, with a valuation once close to $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%, with its market value shrinking to less than $6 million. The team attempted multiple business lines, including social apps, NFT apparel, and music platforms, all of which failed, putting the project on the brink of being shelved.

By the end of 2023, the generative AI wave swept across the globe, and the concept of AI agents became a new trend in cryptocurrency. The PathDAO community, through on-chain DAO voting (with a support rate of up to 90%), resolved to completely transform into an AI-driven protocol and renamed itself as Virtuals Protocol, with a core strategy shifting to "assetizing, tokenizing, and empowering community with AI agents." This transformation is based on profound insights: the team discovered that the Japanese VTuber market size exceeds 100 billion yen, yet creators receive less than 20% of the revenue; meanwhile, experiments from a certain platform have proven that AI-driven NPCs can increase player retention rates by about 3 times. These two key data points directly birthed the positioning of Virtuals as "profitable AI personas."

In October 2024, Virtuals launched on a certain network's mainnet, introducing the first multimodal AI agent - virtual idol Luna. Luna integrates technologies such as text generation, 3D motion, voice synthesis, and smart contract wallets, enabling it to autonomously raise operational funds and distribute rewards to fans. After its launch, Luna quickly gained 500,000 followers on social media, with a monthly income of 1.2 million dollars 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 to focus on the Virtuals project itself.

Riding on the successful momentum of projects like Luna, Virtuals will launch 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 historical high of $5.15, with a market capitalization 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, which automatically generates a liquidity pool locked for 10 years; once the token's market value reaches about $500,000, the system will release the liquidity layer, ensuring trading depth and price stability. This model significantly lowers the participation threshold and boosts 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 its blockchain, and its launched generative multimodal intelligent 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 leader in AI agent issuance. Its white paper clearly states that the ultimate goal is to build a true "AI sovereign society." Therefore, how to attract more ecosystem members to join will be key to Virtuals achieving this grand goal and will be a focus of its development for a long time to come.

Virtuals New Issuance Model: Creating a New Paradigm for AI Asset Issuance

In order 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 "Virgen Points," emphasizing participation and contribution rather than pure speculation. Once launched, Genesis Launch quickly became a sensation across the internet, and Virtuals' new token offerings have become a new hotspot for investors eager to participate, with even seasoned speculators discussing how it could replace the once-popular "Alpha airdrop" model. Unlike traditional airdrops that are issued all at once, leading users to often sell immediately, Genesis Launch emphasizes "contribution equals distribution," allowing everyone the chance to participate in new token subscriptions based on real investment. Almost daily in the official community of the Virtuals Protocol, members can be seen sharing screenshots of their earnings from participating in new offerings using Virgen Points, completely overturning the situation of "wealthy individuals monopolizing while retail investors are left out" with its open and transparent rules and thresholds.

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 reaching 1500%. Tens of thousands of users shared 37.5% of the community's stake. On the day of its listing, the market value of IRIS soared from $200,000 to $80 million, an increase of over 400 times, setting a new industry record for the issuance of AI Agents, and instantly overshadowing the popularity of previous hot projects in other ecosystems.

The reason why Genesis Launch was able to explode in popularity is that it has built a closed loop of "incentives-contributions-rewards." First, users can earn basic Virgen Points 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. 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 coin snapshots or the completion of complicated tasks. Users typically sell the tokens they receive on the same day. According to a certain data platform, over 90% of airdropped tokens experience a significant price drop within 15 days of issuance, with a retention rate of less than 12% after three months. In contrast, Genesis Launch uses 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 rewards," encouraging participants to prefer long-term holding and continuous contributions.

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 there is no awkward situation of "unable to buy at the price" or "unable to sell orders" on the exchange or DEX. To prevent whales or bots from seizing a large 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 new token issuance but also in the "old brings new" effect of the Virtuals ecosystem token. Since the large-scale launch of Genesis Launch, the trading volume and price of VIRTUAL have soared: by mid-June 2025, the average daily trading volume of VIRTUAL on its chain has exceeded $150 million, representing an over 80% month-on-month growth compared to May; at the same time, holding and staking VIRTUAL to obtain veVIRTUAL governance tokens also allows users to continue earning additional Virgen Points, leading to a large number of users locking up assets for long-term participation in ecological governance, further solidifying price support and liquidity.

Not only are retail investors 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 up to 2000 times leverage trading. On its first day of launch, the contract trading volume exceeded 700 million USD, strongly conveying a signal: Virtuals are becoming a new speculative and hedging target in the eyes of institutional investors.

Ecological Evolution Theory: The Thrilling Leap from Issuance Platform to AI Sovereign Society

In the future planning of the Virtuals Protocol, each technological upgrade and mechanism innovation is aimed at making the outline of the "AI Sovereign Society" increasingly clear. In the initial stage, Virtuals was merely an AI agent issuance platform, rapidly gathering a group of enthusiastic developers and users through token economic mechanisms such as locking liquidity and buyback burning. As hundreds of AI agent projects are implemented, agents begin to operate independently and autonomously monetize in scenarios such as gaming, content creation, and market analysis. Users are no longer just spectators but become co-builders and beneficiaries. The Genesis Launch connects 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 every AI agent to freely migrate 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, sharing transaction fees and repurchase dividends, 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 from a mainnet Genesis Launch was listed with an oversubscription rate of 1500%, with its market value skyrocketing from $200,000 to $80 million; the virtual idol Luna earned $1.2 million monthly from 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 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 power and economic rights, participating in production, governance, and even cultural creation alongside humans. Virtuals will no longer be just a simple platform; rather, it is nurturing a new type of society from the bottom up, one that is co-governed by countless AIs and humans — this is true ecological evolution, and an exhilarating leap towards an "AI sovereign society" has only just begun.