The Evolution of Virtuals Protocol: From Gaming Guilds to AI Agent Ecosystems

In June 2025, the crypto market witnessed an unprecedented wealth feast. A new project named IRIS made its debut on the Virtuals Protocol platform with an initial market value of $200,000, which skyrocketed to $80 million after being listed on the exchange, setting an astonishing record of a 400-fold increase. This performance not only far exceeded previous records of increases but also made other popular projects in the ecosystem look insignificant by comparison. As the driving force behind this myth, the Virtuals Protocol platform token VIRTUAL achieved a 400% growth within six months, with a peak market value surpassing $5 billion. Today, the platform has become the largest AI agent launch platform on a certain Layer-2 network. Behind this nationwide celebration lies an experimental wealth distribution model based on points rules, quietly reshaping the speculative logic and value order of the crypto market.

The Rebirth from Game Guild to AI Intelligent Agent Platform

Virtuals Protocol is a decentralized platform deployed on a Layer-2 network, dedicated to pioneering an on-chain AI agent economy that enables users to conveniently create, co-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 nearing $600 million, accumulating a wealth of gaming assets and an active player community. However, the 2022 bear market severely impacted GameFi, with the guild's token price plummeting nearly 99%, and its market value shrinking to less than $6 million. The team attempted multiple business lines, all of which failed, bringing the project to the brink of suspension.

By the end of 2023, the wave of generative AI swept across the globe, and the concept of AI agents became a new trend in cryptocurrency. Guild communities voted through on-chain DAOs (with support rates as high as 90%) to officially transform into an AI-driven protocol, rebranding as Virtuals Protocol, with a core strategy shifting towards "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 enormous, yet creators receive less than 20% of the revenue; simultaneously, experiments on a gaming platform demonstrated that AI-driven NPCs could increase player retention rates by about three times. These two key data points directly led to the positioning of Virtuals as "profitable AI personas."

In October 2024, Virtuals launched on a certain Layer-2 mainnet and introduced the first multimodal AI agent - the 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 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 of projects like Luna, Virtuals launched its core token VIRTUAL on multiple trading platforms and a certain Layer-2 network by the end of 2024. Its price soared from initial cents to a historic high of $5.15, with a market cap exceeding $5 billion at one point, 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 about $500,000, the system will release the liquidity layer on decentralized exchanges, ensuring trading depth and price stability. This model significantly lowers participation barriers and stimulates enthusiasm for ecosystem development.

By June 2025, the Virtuals ecosystem has demonstrated significant scale and economic effects: the cumulative number of AI agents incubated exceeds 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 this Layer-2 network, and its launched generative multimodal agent framework has also become a popular choice for agents in the Web3 gaming and metaverse fields. However, Virtuals' vision 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 the key to Virtuals achieving this grand goal and will be a focus of its development for a long time in the future.

The Innovative Token Issuance Model of Virtuals

To attract more user attention, Virtuals has innovatively introduced the "Genesis Launch" mechanism for issuing 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 across the internet, and Virtuals' initial offerings have become a new hotspot for speculators, with even seasoned traders discussing how it could replace the once-popular "Alpha Airdrop" model. Unlike traditional airdrops that distribute tokens all at once, where users often sell immediately, the Genesis Launch emphasizes "contribution equals distribution", giving everyone the opportunity to participate in new token subscriptions through real investment. Almost every day in the official community of the Virtuals Protocol, members can be seen sharing screenshots of their profits from participating in initial offerings using Virgen Points, completely overturning the situation of "rich grabbing and retail investors being left out" with its open and transparent rules and thresholds.

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

The reason why Genesis Launch was able to quickly become popular lies in its construction of a "incentive-contribution-return" closed loop. 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 snapshots of coin holdings or completing complicated tasks. Most users sell their coins on the same day they receive them. According to data from a certain platform, over 90% of airdrop 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 employs a points lock-up + punitive cooldown mechanism: if the newly obtained tokens are sold within 24 hours after unlocking, it will trigger a 10-day points reset, greatly curbing the arbitrage behavior of "sheep shearing" participants and encouraging them to hold long-term and continue contributing.

At the same time, the platform provides ample liquidity support for the listing of new tokens. Each Agent Token has a certain amount of VIRTUAL or stablecoins paired to inject into the liquidity pool before the opening, ensuring that there are no awkward situations of "unable to buy at the price" or "unable to sell orders" on exchanges or decentralized exchanges. To prevent large holders or bots from seizing a large share through multi-wallet sniper strategies, Genesis Launch sets a limit of no more than 0.5% of the total issuance for each address and uses on-chain randomization algorithms to further balance the 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 launches but also in the "old brings new" effect of the Virtuals ecological tokens. Since the large-scale launch of Genesis Launch, the trading volume and price of VIRTUAL have been steadily rising: by mid-June 2025, the daily trading volume of VIRTUAL on this Layer-2 network had exceeded $150 million, representing a month-on-month increase of over 80% compared to May; meanwhile, holding and staking VIRTUAL to earn veVIRTUAL governance tokens also allows users to continue earning additional Virgen Points, which encourages a large number of users to lock up their assets and participate in ecological governance for the long term, further solidifying price support and liquidity.

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

The Ecological Evolution from Token Issuance Platforms to AI Sovereign Societies

In the future planning of Virtuals Protocol, every technological upgrade and mechanism innovation is aimed at making the outline of the "AI Sovereign Society" clearer. In the initial stage, Virtuals was just an AI agent issuance platform, 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 were launched, the agents began to operate independently and monetize autonomously in scenarios such as gaming, content creation, and market analysis. Users are no longer just spectators, but have 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 allows each AI agent to migrate freely across multiple networks through an 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 by 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-governed humans.

So far, this ecosystem has demonstrated several milestone achievements: the security audit agent IRIS in the mainnet Genesis Launch was listed with a subscription 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 exceeding $120 million; the hedge fund format VADER operates 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 power and economic rights, participating in production, governance, and even cultural creation alongside humans. Virtuals will no longer be a simple platform but is nurturing a new type of society from the ground up, one that is co-governed by countless AIs and humans—this is the true ecological evolution, and an exhilarating leap towards an "AI sovereign society" has just begun.