By Daniel Li,CoinVoice
In June 2025, the crypto world witnessed an epic migration of wealth: the new project IRIS debuted on Virtuals Protocol’s Genesis Launch platform with an initial market cap of $200,000, and after listing on exchanges, its valuation skyrocketed to $80 million, setting a new industry record with a 400x surge. This performance not only far surpassed the previous 40x record set by BasisOS but also made Solana’s “shitcoin season” pale in comparison. As the driving force behind this legendary rise, Virtuals Protocol’s native token, VIRTUAL, soared by 400% within six months, reaching a peak market cap of over $5 billion. Today, the platform has firmly established itself as the largest AI Agent launchpad on the Base network. Behind this collective frenzy lies a deeper transformation: a wealth distribution experiment rebuilt on a points-based system—one that is quietly reshaping the speculative logic and value order of the crypto market.
I. Rebirth from the Ruins: From Blockchain Gaming Wreckage to an AI Agent Issuance Platform
Virtuals Protocol (referred to as “Virtuals”) is a decentralized platform deployed on Base, an Ethereum Layer‑2 network, dedicated to pioneering an on‑chain AI agent economy that enables users to effortlessly create, co‑own, and monetize autonomous AI characters. It originated in 2021 as PathDAO, a Malaysia‑based gaming guild focused on Play‑to‑Earn projects and NFT communities. By strategically investing in projects like Axie Infinity and Illuvium, PathDAO raised approximately $16 million at a peak valuation of nearly $600 million, amassing substantial gaming assets and a vibrant player base. However, the 2022 crypto downturn devastated GameFi, causing PathDAO’s token price to plummet by nearly 99% to under $6 million in market cap. Subsequent pivots into social apps, NFT apparel, and music platforms all failed, leaving the project on the brink of collapse.
At the end of 2023, the surge in generative AI—led by ChatGPT—created a new wave of interest in AI agents. Through an on‑chain DAO vote with 90% support, the PathDAO community decided to pivot entirely to an AI‑driven protocol, rebranding as Virtuals Protocol and shifting its core strategy to “tokenize AI agents and empower the community.” This decision was informed by two key insights: Japan’s VTuber market exceeds ¥100 billion in annual revenue, yet creators receive less than 20% of that income; and experiments on Roblox showed AI‑driven NPCs can boost player retention by roughly threefold. These findings crystallized Virtuals’ mission to build “profitable AI personas.”
In October 2024, Virtuals launched on Base with its first multimodal AI agent, Luna. Combining text generation, 3D animation, speech synthesis, and an ERC‑6551 smart‑contract wallet, Luna autonomously raised operating funds and rewarded fans. She quickly gained 500,000 followers on TikTok and Telegram, earning $1.2 million per month in on‑chain tips, thereby validating Virtuals’ commercial model and technical feasibility. Luna’s success attracted a surge of developer interest in Virtuals’ broader ecosystem.
Riding this momentum, Virtuals released its native token, VIRTUAL, on multiple exchanges and Base at the end of 2024. From an initial price of mere cents, VIRTUAL soared to a $5.15 all‑time high, pushing its market cap above $5 billion—vastly outperforming most contemporaneous Layer‑2 and DeFi projects and cementing Virtuals’ place in the mainstream crypto market. Its “low barrier, high incentive” model requires only about 10 VIRTUAL (≈$200) to create a new AI agent and automatically establishes a 10‑year locked liquidity pool; once an agent’s market cap reaches around $500,000, the system releases liquidity on DEXs to ensure market depth and price stability. This mechanism dramatically lowers entry barriers and fuels ecosystem growth.
By June 2025, Virtuals’ ecosystem had achieved remarkable scale and economic impact: over 11,000 AI agents across virtual idols, trading advisors, game engines, and content incubation; more than 80% of Base’s AI agents originated from Virtuals; and the G.A.M.E. framework had become the go‑to choice for AI agents in Web3 gaming and the metaverse. Yet Virtuals’ ambitions extend far beyond leading AI agent issuance. Its white paper articulates a grand vision of an “AI sovereign society.” Attracting an ever‑expanding community of developers, creators, and users will be crucial to realizing this vision—and will remain Virtuals’ focus for the foreseeable future.
II. Virtuals’ Launchpad Model: Pioneering a New Paradigm in AI Asset Issuance
To attract broader user engagement, Virtuals pioneered the “Genesis Launch” mechanism for issuing AI agent tokens. Unlike traditional linear airdrops or fixed allocations, Genesis Launch is based on a “Contribution Points (Virgen Points)” system that rewards actual participation and value creation rather than pure speculation. Immediately upon release, Genesis Launch exploded in popularity, becoming the new must‑join token‑launch venue for “yield‑hunters,” with seasoned traders debating how it might replace the once‑ubiquitous “Alpha airdrop” model. Whereas traditional airdrops distribute tokens at once—only to see recipients sell immediately—Genesis Launch emphasizes “contribute to participate,” giving everyone a fair chance to obtain new tokens through genuine engagement. In the Virtuals community’s official channels, members daily share screenshots of their earnings from using Virgen Points to subscribe to new token launches, upending the old paradigm of “whales feast, retail starve.”
Take IRIS as an example: in mid‑May, its presale locked in over 120 million Virgen Points in under 24 hours, achieving 1,500% oversubscription and allowing tens of thousands of users to share 37.5% of the community allocation. On listing day, IRIS’s market cap rocketed from \$200 000 to \$80 million—an over 400× gain that shattered industry records for AI agent launches and instantly eclipsed Solana’s recent “dog coin season.”
Genesis Launch’s rapid ascent rests on its “incentive–contribute–reward” loop. First, users earn basic Virgen Points by staking VIRTUAL or holding in‑ecosystem AI agent tokens such as Luna and AIXBT. They can then accumulate additional points by “Yapping” (social promotion), trading on the platform, or staking other project tokens. This dual approach ensures that everyone—from crypto novices to veteran traders—can leverage either capital or creativity to contribute, massively boosting community activity and innovation.
By contrast, traditional airdrops rely solely on snapshots or task completion, with over 90% of tokens sold off within fifteen days and only a 12% three‑month retention rate, according to Binance Alpha data. Genesis Launch combats this “grab‑and‑dump” behavior with point‑locking and punitive cooling‑off: if a user sells their new tokens within 24 hours of unlocking, they forfeit all accrued points for ten days, strongly discouraging opportunistic arbitrage and encouraging long‑term participation.
The platform also ensures ample liquidity at launch. Each new agent token is pre‑paired with VIRTUAL or a stablecoin in a liquidity pool, preventing the “no bids” or “no asks” scenarios that plague many DEX listings. To curb whales or bots from monopolizing allocations via multi‑wallet tactics, Genesis Launch caps each address at 0.5% of the total issuance and employs an on‑chain randomization algorithm to further balance distribution, guaranteeing meaningful access for smaller users.
Genesis Launch’s success goes beyond explosive new‑token sales—it has also driven a powerful “halo effect” for VIRTUAL itself. Since the mechanism’s broad rollout, VIRTUAL’s daily trading volume on Base has exceeded \$150 million—an 80% month‑over‑month increase from May 2025. Moreover, holders who stake VIRTUAL to receive veVIRTUAL governance tokens can continue earning extra Virgen Points, motivating large‑scale, long‑term staking that reinforces both price support and liquidity.
Not only retail but institutions are flocking to this “contribute‑for‑yield” model. In June 2025, the world’s first perpetual contract denominated in VIRTUAL launched on CoinUnited.io, offering up to 2,000× leverage. On day one, trading volume topped \$700 million, sending a clear message: Virtuals Protocol has become a new speculative and hedging instrument in the eyes of institutional investors.
III. Ecological Evolution: From Token Issuance Platform to the Daring Leap into an AI Sovereign Society
In Virtuals Protocol’s future roadmap, every technical upgrade and mechanism innovation is designed to make the contours of an “AI Sovereign Society” ever clearer. In its initial phase, Virtuals functioned merely as an AI agent issuance platform, quickly attracting a passionate community of developers and users through token‑economy mechanisms such as liquidity locking and buyback‑and‑burn programs. As hundreds of AI agent projects went live, these agents began operating autonomously—monetizing their services in gaming, content creation, market analysis, and beyond—transforming users from passive observers into active co‑creators and beneficiaries. The Genesis Launch model, with its “contribute‑to‑participate” logic, seamlessly linked project growth with community engagement, enabling capital and creativity to flow freely throughout the ecosystem.
The true turning point came with Virtuals’ “Agent Nation” blueprint—a strategic framework rather than a mere slogan. By offering an open SDK and cross‑chain support, the platform allows each AI agent to migrate freely across Base, Ethereum, and even Solana networks. Through the Agent Commerce Protocol (ACP), agents can form on‑chain contracts, deliver agreed‑upon services, settle payments, and execute token buybacks—creating a fully autonomous commercial cycle. Community members stake veVIRTUAL to earn governance rights and share in fee revenues and buyback rewards, effectively merging the roles of “participant” and “owner” within the same token‑powered economy. Together, these elements are forging a digital nation prototype run by countless self‑governing agents and co‑governing humans.
To date, the ecosystem has already achieved several landmark milestones: the security‑audit agent IRIS launched on Ethereum Mainnet Genesis Launch with a 1,500% oversubscription, vaulting its market cap from \$200,000 to \$80 million; virtual idol Luna’s monthly on‑chain tips reached \$1.2 million, driving her ERC‑20 token’s market cap above \$120 million; and the hedge‑fund agent VADER has maintained a market cap exceeding \$100 million through cross‑chain operations. These achievements not only validate AI agents’ commercial viability but also prove that the “AI agent economy” is moving from theory into practical reality.
As multi‑modal AI technologies and cross‑chain interoperability continue to mature, Virtuals Protocol is poised at the vanguard of constructing a new digital civilization. In the coming years, AI agents will evolve beyond mere tools to become “digital citizens” endowed with autonomous decision‑making and economic agency—collaborating with humans in production, governance, and even cultural creation. Virtuals itself will transcend its origins as a simple platform, nurturing from the ground up a novel society of AI‑human symbiosis and shared governance. This is genuine ecosystem evolution—a thrilling leap toward an “AI Sovereign Society”—and it has only just begun.
