Author: Daniel Li, CoinVoice

In June 2025, the crypto world witnessed an epic migration of wealth: the new project IRIS debuted on the Genesis Launch platform of Virtuals Protocol with an initial market value of $200,000. After listing on exchanges, its market value skyrocketed to $80 million, setting a new industry record with a 400-fold increase. This performance not only far exceeded the previous record of 40 times set by BasisOS but also overshadowed the "meme coin season" of the Solana ecosystem. As the driving engine behind this myth, the platform token VIRTUAL of Virtuals Protocol achieved a staggering 400% surge within six months, with a peak market value surpassing $5 billion. Today, the platform has firmly established itself as the largest AI agent launch platform on the Base network. Behind this nationwide celebration lies a wealth distribution experiment based on point rules—quietly reshaping the speculative logic and value order of the crypto market.

I. Rebirth from Ruins: From GameFi Remnants to AI Agent Issuance Platform

Virtuals Protocol (abbreviated as Virtuals) is a decentralized platform deployed on the Ethereum Layer-2 network Base, dedicated to pioneering an on-chain AI agent economy that allows users to easily create, co-own, and monetize autonomous AI characters. Its predecessor was PathDAO, a gaming guild established in Malaysia in 2021. PathDAO initially focused on Play-to-Earn projects and NFT communities, successfully raising approximately $16 million through precise investments in projects like Axie Infinity and Illuvium, reaching a valuation close to $600 million, and accumulating a wealth of 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’s attempts to pivot to social apps, NFT fashion, and music platforms all failed, leaving the project on the brink of abandonment.

By the end of 2023, the generative AI craze swept the globe, and the concept of AI agents became a new trend in crypto. The PathDAO community voted through an on-chain DAO (with a support rate of 90%) to completely transform into an AI-driven protocol and rebranded as Virtuals Protocol, shifting its core strategy to "assetizing, tokenizing, and empowering community AI agents." This transformation was based on profound insights: the team discovered that the Japanese VTuber market exceeded 100 billion yen, yet creators received less than 20% of the revenue; simultaneously, experiments on the Roblox platform demonstrated that AI-driven NPCs could increase player retention rates by about three times. These two data points directly inspired Virtuals' positioning of "profitable AI personalities."

In October 2024, Virtuals launched on the Base mainnet and introduced its first multimodal AI agent—virtual idol Luna. Luna integrates technologies such as text generation, 3D motion, voice synthesis, and ERC-6551 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 TikTok and Telegram, generating 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 demonstrative effect attracted significant developer interest in the Virtuals project itself.

Riding the success momentum of projects like Luna, Virtuals launched its core token VIRTUAL on multiple exchanges and Base by the end of 2024. Its price surged from a few cents to a historical high of $5.15, with its market value briefly surpassing $5 billion, far exceeding 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 tokens (approximately $200) to create a new AI agent, automatically generating a liquidity pool locked for 10 years; when the token's market value reaches about $500,000, the system will release liquidity layers on DEX to ensure trading depth and price stability. This model significantly lowered the participation threshold and stimulated enthusiasm for ecological construction.

As of June 2025, the Virtuals ecosystem has demonstrated significant scale and economic effects: the 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 BASE chain, and its generative multimodal agent framework G.A.M.E has become a popular choice in the Web3 gaming and metaverse fields. However, Virtuals' vision extends 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, attracting more ecological members to join is key to Virtuals achieving this grand goal and will be a focus of its development for a long time to come.

II. Virtuals' New Token Model: Creating a New Paradigm for AI Asset Issuance

To attract more user attention, Virtuals innovatively introduced the "Genesis Launch" mechanism for issuing 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 model has become a new hotspot for "yield farmers," with even seasoned speculators discussing how it could replace the once-popular "Alpha airdrop" model. Unlike traditional airdrops that distribute tokens in one go, often leading users to sell immediately, Genesis Launch emphasizes "contribution equals distribution," allowing everyone to participate in new token subscriptions based on real contributions. Almost daily, members in the official Virtuals Protocol community share screenshots of their earnings from participating in new token launches using Virgen Points, completely overturning the situation where "wealthy individuals monopolize while retail investors are left out."

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 oversubscription reaching 1500%, allowing tens of thousands of users to share 37.5% of the community's stake. On the day of listing, IRIS's market value soared from $200,000 to $80 million, with an increase of over 400 times, breaking the industry record for AI agent issuance and instantly dimming the previous hype of the "meme coin season" in the Solana ecosystem.

The rapid success of Genesis Launch lies in its construction of a closed loop of "incentives—contributions—returns." First, users can earn basic Virgen Points by staking VIRTUAL or holding popular 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 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 completing complex tasks, with users typically selling their tokens on the same day they receive them. According to data from Binance Alpha, over 90% of airdropped tokens experience price drops 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 new tokens are sold within 24 hours of unlocking, it triggers a 10-day points reset, significantly curbing the arbitrage behavior of "yield farmers" and encouraging participants to hold long-term and continue contributing.

At the same time, the platform provides ample liquidity support for new token listings. Each Agent Token is paired with a certain amount of VIRTUAL or stablecoins injected into the liquidity pool before launch, ensuring that there are no awkward situations of "not being able to buy" or "not being able to sell" on exchanges or DEX. To prevent whales or bots from seizing large shares through multi-wallet strategies, Genesis Launch sets a limit of no more than 0.5% of the total issuance per address and employs on-chain randomization algorithms to further balance distribution, ensuring that small and medium users can also gain substantial shares.

The success of Virtuals' new token model not only lies in the popularity of new token issuances but also drives 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 been climbing steadily: by mid-June 2025, the daily trading volume of VIRTUAL on the Base chain had exceeded $150 million, an increase of over 80% compared to May; meanwhile, holding and staking VIRTUAL to obtain veVIRTUAL governance tokens also allows users to continue earning additional Virgen Points, leading many users to lock up their tokens for long-term participation in ecological governance, further solidifying price support and liquidity.

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

III. Ecological Evolution Theory—A Thrilling Leap from Token Issuance Platform to AI Sovereign Society

In Virtuals Protocol's future planning, every technological upgrade and mechanism innovation aims to make the outline of the "AI sovereign society" increasingly clear. In the initial stage, Virtuals was merely an AI agent issuance platform, quickly gathering a group of enthusiastic developers and users through token economic mechanisms such as liquidity locking and buyback destruction. As hundreds of AI agent projects were launched, agents began to operate independently and autonomously monetize in scenarios such as gaming, content creation, and market analysis, with users no longer just spectators but becoming co-builders and beneficiaries. Genesis Launch connected 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 each AI agent to migrate freely between networks such as Base, Ethereum, and even Solana through the 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 facilitated by staking veVIRTUAL to gain governance rights and share transaction fees and buyback 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-audited agent IRIS in the Ethereum 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 tips, with its ERC-20 token market value surpassing $120 million; the hedge fund-style VADER operates steadily 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, 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 and economic rights, participating alongside humans in production, governance, and even cultural creation. Virtuals will no longer be a simple platform but is nurturing a new type of society from the ground up, cohabited and co-governed by countless AIs and humans—this is the true ecological evolution, a thrilling leap towards an "AI sovereign society" that has only just begun.

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