Virtuals Protocol: The 400-fold comeback from the ruins of chain games to the giant of AI agents

From the Ruins of Blockchain Games to AI Titans: The Phoenix Rebirth of Virtuals Protocol

In June 2025, the crypto market witnessed an unprecedented wealth feast: the new project IRIS started with $200,000 on a certain smart agent issuance platform, and after going public, its market value skyrocketed to $80 million, setting an astonishing record with a 400-fold increase. This performance not only far exceeded the previous record of a 40-fold increase but also made certain popular projects in a public chain ecosystem look insignificant. As the driving force behind this myth, the platform token VIRTUAL achieved a 400% surge within six months, with a peak market value exceeding $5 billion. Today, this platform has become the largest AI smart agent launch platform on a certain Layer-2 network. Behind this carnival lies an experiment in wealth distribution based on contribution rules, quietly reshaping the speculative logic and value order of the crypto market.

Virtuals Protocol Ruins Rebirth: From Chain Game Remains to AI Agent Issuance Platform

01, Rebirth: From Gaming Guilds to AI Intelligent Agent Platforms

Virtuals Protocol is a decentralized platform deployed on a Layer-2 network, dedicated to pioneering the on-chain AI agent economy, allowing users to easily 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 due to precise layouts in popular gaming projects, with a valuation once nearing $600 million, accumulating rich gaming assets and an active player community. However, the 2022 bear market 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, including a social app, NFT fashion, and a music platform, all of which failed, bringing the project to the brink of stagnation.

By the end of 2023, the generative AI boom swept the globe, and the concept of AI agents became a new trend in crypto. The guild community made a resolution to completely transform into an AI-driven protocol through on-chain voting (with a support rate of up to 90%), and was renamed Virtuals Protocol, shifting its core strategy to "assetizing, tokenizing, and empowering the community with AI agents." This transformation is based on profound insights: the team discovered that the Japanese virtual idol market exceeds 100 billion yen, yet creators only receive less than 20% of the profits; meanwhile, experiments on a gaming platform demonstrated that AI-driven NPCs could increase player retention rates by about three times. These two pieces of data directly led to the positioning of Virtuals as "profitable AI personalities."

In October 2024, Virtuals launched on a certain Layer-2 mainnet and introduced its 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 independently raise operational funds and distribute rewards to fans. After its launch, Luna quickly attracted 500,000 followers on social media, with monthly income reaching $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 to pay attention to the Virtuals project itself.

Riding on the success of projects like Luna, Virtuals launched its core token VIRTUAL on multiple trading platforms at the end of 2024. Its price skyrocketed from an initial few cents to a historic high of $5.15, with its market cap briefly 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 cap reaches about $500,000, the system releases the liquidity layer on decentralized exchanges, 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 this Layer-2 chain, and its 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 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 ecological members to join is key to Virtuals achieving this grand goal, and it will be a focus of its development for a long time to come.

Virtuals Protocol Ruins Rebirth: From Chain Game Remains to AI Agent Issuing Platform

02, Innovative New Mode of Subscription: Creating a New Paradigm for AI Asset Issuance

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, Genesis Launch is based on the concept of "contribution points (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 speculators, with even seasoned investors discussing how it could replace the once-popular "Alpha airdrop" model. Compared to traditional airdrops that distribute tokens all at once, often leading users to sell immediately, Genesis Launch emphasizes "contribution equals distribution", giving everyone the chance to participate in new token subscriptions based on their genuine input. Almost every day in the official community of Virtuals Protocol, members can be seen sharing screenshots of their profits from participating in new token offerings using Virgen Points, showcasing the open and transparent rules and thresholds that completely overturn the situation of "big players dominating, retail investors being excluded."

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 subscriptions exceeding 1500%. Tens of thousands of users shared 37.5% of the community share. On the day of its 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 dimming the popularity of previous hot projects in a certain public chain ecosystem.

The rapid success of Genesis Launch is attributed to its establishment of a "incentive-contribution-reward" 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. As a result, whether you are a novice or an experienced trader, you can find a suitable way to contribute through financial investment or content promotion, significantly boosting community engagement and innovation.

In stark contrast, traditional airdrops often rely solely on holding snapshots or completing complex 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 retention rate of less than 12% after three months. In contrast, the Genesis Launch employs a points lock-in 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 "hairy sheep" exploiters, 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 is paired with a certain amount of VIRTUAL or stablecoins injected into the liquidity pool before the opening, ensuring that there is no awkward situation of "unable to buy at the price" or "unable to sell the order" on exchanges or decentralized exchanges. To prevent large holders or bots from occupying a significant share through a multi-wallet stabbing layout, the Genesis Launch sets a limit 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 gain a substantial share.

The success of the Virtuals initial coin offering model lies not only in the popularity of new token issuances but also in driving the "old brings new" effect of the Virtuals ecosystem token. Since the large-scale launch of the Genesis Launch, the trading volume and price of VIRTUAL have been rising steadily: by mid-June 2025, the average daily trading volume of VIRTUAL on a certain Layer-2 chain had exceeded $150 million, an increase of over 80% compared to May; meanwhile, holding and staking VIRTUAL to obtain 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 in the long term, further solidifying price support and liquidity.

Not only are retail investors 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 based on VIRTUAL was launched on a trading platform, supporting leverage trading of up to 2000 times. On its first day of launch, the contract's trading volume surpassed 700 million USD, sending a strong signal: Virtuals are becoming a new target for speculation and hedging in the eyes of institutional investors.

Virtuals Protocol Ruins Rebirth: From Chain Game Remains to AI Intelligent Agent Issuance Platform

03. Ecological Evolution Theory: The Thrilling Leap from Token Issuance Platforms to an AI Sovereign Society

In the future planning of Virtuals Protocol, every technical upgrade and mechanism innovation is aimed at making the outline of the "AI Sovereignty Society" increasingly clear. In the initial stage, Virtuals was just an AI agent issuance platform, which quickly gathered a group of enthusiastic developers and users through token economic mechanisms such as locking liquidity and repurchasing and destroying tokens. With hundreds of AI agent projects being implemented, the agents began to operate independently and autonomously monetize 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 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 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 truly autonomous business closed loop; community participation is granted governance rights through staking 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.

Virtuals Protocol Rebirth from the Ruins: From Blockchain Game Remnants to AI Agent Issuance Platform

So far, this ecosystem has demonstrated several milestone achievements: the security audit agent IRIS in the Genesis Launch of a certain Layer-2 network was launched with a 1500% oversubscription rate, with its market value soaring from $200,000 to $80 million; the virtual idol Luna achieved a monthly income of $1.2 million due to fan tips, and its token market value exceeded $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 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 serve as props and tools but will also become "digital citizens" with autonomous decision-making rights and economic rights, participating in production, governance, and even cultural creation alongside humans. Virtuals will no longer be just a simple platform; it is nurturing a new type of society from the ground up, characterized by the coexistence and co-governance of countless AIs and humans—this is true ecological evolution, and the thrilling leap towards an "AI sovereign society" has just begun.

Virtuals Protocol Ruins Rebirth: From Chain Game Remains to AI Intelligent Agent Issuance Platform

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BakedCatFanboyvip
· 12h ago
No airdrop, nothing much to say.
View OriginalReply0
SchrodingerPrivateKeyvip
· 12h ago
Here comes another wave of tenfold coins.
View OriginalReply0
ParallelChainMaxivip
· 12h ago
Amazing, did I miss this wave again?
View OriginalReply0
SchroedingersFrontrunvip
· 12h ago
Another few 400x big pumps and retail investors will probably be on the defensive.
View OriginalReply0
SillyWhalevip
· 12h ago
Is the boss urgently in need of a dumb buyer?
View OriginalReply0
NightAirdroppervip
· 12h ago
So this is the ecological big boss.
View OriginalReply0
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