From Chain Game Ruins to AI Agent Issuance Platform: The Rebirth Journey of Virtuals Protocol

In June 2025, the crypto world witnessed a remarkable migration of wealth: the new project IRIS made its debut with an initial market value of $200,000 on a certain platform, and after being listed on the exchange, its market value skyrocketed to $80 million, setting a new industry record with a 400-fold increase. This performance not only far exceeded previous records of growth but also left other ecological projects in the dust. As the driving engine behind this myth, the platform token achieved a staggering 400% surge within six months, with its market cap peaking over $5 billion. Today, the platform has firmly established itself as the largest AI agent launch platform on a certain network. Behind this nationwide celebration lies a wealth distribution experiment based on point allocation rules—quietly reshaping the speculative logic and value order of the crypto market.

Ruins Rebirth: From Chain Game Remnants to AI Intelligent Agent Issuance 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 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 through precise positioning in multiple 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 by nearly 99%, with its market value shrinking to less than $6 million. The team attempted various business lines, including social apps, NFT clothing, and music platforms, all of which failed, leaving the project on the brink of stagnation.

By the end of 2023, the wave of generative AI swept the globe, and the concept of AI agents became a new trend in cryptocurrency. Guild communities voted on-chain through DAO (with a support rate as high as 90%) to completely transform into an AI-driven protocol, and renamed it Virtuals Protocol. The core strategy shifted to "assetizing and 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 3 times. These two pieces of data directly gave rise to the positioning of Virtuals as "profitable AI personalities."

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 operating funds and distribute rewards to fans. After its launch, Luna quickly gained 500,000 fans on social platforms, with a monthly income of 1.2 million dollars solely from fan donations, successfully validating the business model and technical feasibility of on-chain AI agents. Its demonstrative effect attracted a large number of developers to pay attention to the Virtuals project itself.

Riding on the success momentum of projects like Luna, Virtuals will launch its core token on multiple trading platforms and networks by the end of 2024. Its price surged from an initial few cents to a historical high of $5.15, with a 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 barrier, high incentive" mechanism is highly attractive: users only need to stake about 10 tokens (approximately $200) to create a new AI agent, which automatically generates 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 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 the network, and its launched generative multimodal agent framework has also become a popular choice for agents in the fields of Web3 gaming and the metaverse. 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 to come.

Virtuals New Issuance Model: Creating 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, 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 now Virtuals' new token offerings have become a new hotspot for speculators, with even seasoned speculators discussing how it might replace the once-popular "Alpha Airdrop" model. Unlike traditional airdrops, which are distributed in a lump sum and often lead users to sell immediately, Genesis Launch emphasizes "contribution equals distribution", allowing everyone the chance to participate in new token subscriptions based on their genuine contributions. Almost every day in the official community of Virtuals Protocol, members can be seen sharing screenshots of the profits they made from participating in new offerings using Virgen Points, showcasing a transparent and inclusive system that has completely overturned the situation of "wealthy individuals monopolizing, while retail investors are left out".

Taking IRIS as an example, the project launched a presale in mid-May, locking in over 120 million points in less than 24 hours, with subscription oversubscription reaching 1500%. Tens of thousands of users shared 37.5% of the community shares. On the day of listing, the market value of IRIS skyrocketed from $200,000 to $80 million, with an increase of over 400 times, breaking the industry record set by AIAgent issuance and instantly dimming the spotlight on other ecological projects.

The reason why GenesisLaunch was able to quickly gain popularity lies in its construction of a "incentive---contribution---reward" closed loop. Firstly, users can earn basic VirgenPoints by staking tokens or holding the hot AIAgent tokens within the ecosystem; secondly, users can also accumulate more points by participating in social promotion, trading on the platform, or staking tokens from other projects. In this way, whether you are a technical novice or a seasoned trader, you can find a suitable way to contribute through capital investment or content promotion, which greatly stimulates community activity and innovation.

In stark contrast, traditional airdrops often rely solely on token snapshots or completing complex tasks, with users mostly selling their tokens on the same day they receive them. According to a certain data platform, over 90% of airdrop tokens experience a significant price drop within 15 days after issuance, with a retention rate of less than 12% after three months. In contrast, GenesisLaunch employs a points locking + punitive cooling mechanism: if the newly acquired tokens are sold within 24 hours of unlocking, it will trigger a 10-day points reset, significantly curbing the arbitrage behavior of those looking to "milk the system," thereby encouraging participants to hold long-term and continue contributing.

At the same time, the platform provides ample liquidity support for the listing of new tokens. Each AgentToken is paired with a certain amount of tokens or stablecoins injected into the liquidity pool before the opening, ensuring that there is no awkward situation of "buying at no price" or "unable to sell orders" on exchanges or decentralized trading platforms. To prevent whales or bots from occupying a large share through multi-wallet knife-style layouts, GenesisLaunch sets a limit of no more than 0.5% of the total issuance for each address and employs an on-chain randomization algorithm for further balanced distribution, ensuring that small and medium users can also gain considerable shares.

The success of the Virtuals new token issuance model is not only due to the popularity of the new tokens but also drives the "old brings new" effect of the Virtuals ecological tokens. Since the large-scale launch of GenesisLaunch, the trading volume and price of the tokens have been climbing steadily: by mid-June 2025, the daily average trading volume of the tokens on a certain chain had exceeded $150 million, an increase of over 80% compared to May; at the same time, holding and staking tokens to obtain governance tokens can also continue to earn additional VirgenPoints, leading a large number of users to lock up their assets 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 based on this token was launched on a certain trading platform, supporting leverage trading of up to 2000 times. On the first day of its launch, the contract transaction volume broke through $700 million in one go, strongly conveying a signal: 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, each technological upgrade and mechanism innovation aims to make the outline of the "AI Sovereign Society" increasingly clear. In the initial stage, Virtuals was just an AI agent issuance platform, rapidly gathering a group of enthusiastic developers and users through token economic mechanisms such as liquidity locking and buyback and burn. With hundreds of AI agent projects being launched, intelligent 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 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 between 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 truly autonomous business closed loop; community participation is obtained through staking governance tokens, granting 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 mainnet Genesis Launch was listed with a 1500% oversubscription rate, with its market value skyrocketing 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 surpassing $120 million; the hedge fund format VADER is operating steadily in a cross-chain environment, with a market value exceeding $100 million... These data not only reflect the feasibility of the agent business model but also prove that the "AI agency 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 days to come, AI agents will not only be props and tools but will also become "digital citizens" with autonomous decision-making power 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, co-governed by countless AIs and humans------this is true ecological evolution, a thrilling leap towards an "AI sovereign society" that has just begun.