The Rebirth of Virtuals Protocol: Transformation from Gaming Guild to AI Intelligent Agent Issuance Platform

In June 2025, the crypto world witnessed an astonishing migration of wealth: the new project IRIS debuted on the Genesis Launch platform of Virtuals Protocol with an initial market value of $200,000, and subsequently, after being listed on exchanges, its market value skyrocketed to $80 million, setting a new industry record for a 400-fold increase. This performance not only far exceeded the previous record of a 40-fold increase but also made the "meme coin season" of other ecosystems look pale in comparison. As the driving force behind this myth, the platform token VIRTUAL of Virtuals Protocol saw a 400% surge within six months, reaching a market value peak of over $5 billion. Today, the platform has firmly established itself as the largest AI agent launch platform on a certain Layer-2 network. However, behind this national celebration lies an experiment in wealth distribution restructured based on points rules------it is quietly reshaping the speculative logic and value order of the crypto market.

From Gaming Guild to AI Intelligent Agent Issuance Platform's Glamorous Transformation

Virtuals Protocol is a decentralized platform deployed on a Layer-2 network, dedicated to pioneering an on-chain AI agent economy that allows users to easily 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 NFT communities, successfully raising approximately $16 million through precise positioning in multiple popular gaming projects, with a valuation once approaching $600 million, accumulating a wealth of gaming assets and an active player community. However, the bear market in 2022 severely impacted GameFi, causing the price of PathDAO tokens to plummet by nearly 99%, reducing its market capitalization to less than $6 million. The team attempted various business lines including a social app, NFT clothing, and a music platform, all of which ended in failure, leaving the project on the brink of abandonment.

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. The PathDAO community decided to completely transform into an AI-driven protocol through on-chain DAO voting, and was renamed Virtuals Protocol, with its core strategy shifting to "assetizing, tokenizing AI agents, and empowering the community." This transformation is based on profound insights: the team discovered that the Japanese VTuber market size exceeds 100 billion yen, but creators receive less than 20% of the revenue; at the same time, experiments on a certain platform proved that AI-driven NPCs can increase player retention rates by about three times. These two pieces of data directly gave rise to the positioning of Virtuals as "profitable AI personalities."

In October 2024, Virtuals launched its first multimodal AI agent—virtual idol Luna—on a Layer-2 network mainnet. 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 going live, Luna rapidly gained 500,000 followers on social media, with monthly income from fan tips reaching $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 to focus on the Virtuals project itself.

Riding on the success of projects like Luna, Virtuals launched its core token VIRTUAL on multiple trading platforms and Layer-2 networks at the end of 2024. Its price soared from an initial few cents to a historic 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 and automatically generate a liquidity pool locked for 10 years; when the token's market value reaches about $500,000, the system will release a liquidity layer on decentralized exchanges to ensure trading depth and price stability. This model significantly lowers the participation threshold 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 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 this Layer-2 network, 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 leader in AI agent issuance. Its white paper clearly states that the ultimate goal is to build a truly 'AI sovereign society'. Therefore, attracting 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: Pioneering a New Paradigm for AI Asset Issuance

To attract more user attention, Virtuals has innovatively introduced the "Genesis Launch" mechanism for the issuance of AI agent tokens. Unlike traditional linear airdrops or fixed issuances, 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 now Virtuals has become a new hotspot for "token farming" enthusiasts to participate in, with even seasoned speculators discussing how it could replace the once-popular "Alpha Airdrop" model. Unlike traditional airdrops that are distributed in one go, often leading users to sell immediately, the Genesis Launch emphasizes "contribution equals distribution", allowing everyone the opportunity to participate in new token subscriptions based on real contributions. Almost every day in the official community of Virtuals Protocol, members can be seen sharing screenshots of their earnings from participating in the new token launches using Virgen Points, which has completely overturned 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 presale 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 share. On the day of listing, IRIS's market value soared from $200,000 to $80 million, a staggering increase of over 400 times, breaking the industry record set by AI Agent issuance, and instantly dimming the previous wave of "sh*tcoin season" in other ecosystems.

The reason why Genesis Launch can quickly become popular lies in its construction of a closed loop of "incentives---contributions---rewards." Firstly, 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 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 completing complicated tasks. Most users sell the tokens they receive on the same day. According to a data platform, over 90% of airdropped tokens experience a significant price drop within 15 days of issuance, with a holding rate of less than 12% after three months. In contrast, Genesis Launch employs a point-locking and punitive cooling mechanism: if the newly acquired tokens are sold within 24 hours after unlocking, it will trigger a 10-day point reset, significantly curbing the arbitrage behavior of those looking to "farm rewards," 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 has a certain amount of VIRTUAL or stablecoins paired and injected into the liquidity pool before the opening, ensuring that there is no "unable to buy at price" or "unable to sell orders" awkwardness on exchanges or decentralized exchanges. To prevent whales or bots from occupying a large share through multi-wallet strategies, 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 the allocation, ensuring that small and medium users can also benefit from a substantial share.

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 been rising sharply: by mid-June 2025, the daily trading volume of VIRTUAL on this Layer-2 network had 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 Virgen Points, leading many users to lock in their holdings 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 mechanism of "contribution for returns." In June 2025, the world's first perpetual contract with VIRTUAL as the underlying asset was launched on a certain trading platform, supporting leverage trading of up to 2000 times. On the first day of its launch, the contract's trading volume surpassed 700 million USD, strongly conveying a message: Virtuals are becoming a new target for speculation and hedging in the eyes of institutional investors.

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

In the future planning of Virtuals Protocol, every technical upgrade and mechanism innovation aims to make the outline of the "AI Sovereign Society" increasingly clear. In its initial stage, Virtuals was merely an AI agent issuance platform, which quickly gathered a group of enthusiastic developers and users through token economic mechanisms such as locking liquidity and buyback-and-burn. As hundreds of AI agent projects were implemented, the agents began to operate independently and autonomously monetize 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 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 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 loop; community participation is obtained through staking veVIRTUAL for governance rights, and 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 in a certain network's Genesis Launch was listed with an oversubscription rate of 1500%, with 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 exceeding $100 million... These figures not only reflect the feasibility of the agent business model but also prove that the "AI agency economy" is moving 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; instead, it is nurturing a new type of society from the ground up, where countless AIs and humans coexist and govern together—this is the true ecological evolution, a thrilling leap towards an "AI sovereignty society" that has just begun.

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