The Evolution of Virtuals Protocol: From Gaming Guilds to AI Agent Ecosystems

In June 2025, the crypto market witnessed a spectacular wealth feast: the new project IRIS debuted on the Genesis Launch platform of Virtuals Protocol with an initial market value of $200,000, and after going live, its market value skyrocketed to $80 million, achieving an astonishing increase of 400 times. This performance far exceeded the previous record for growth, becoming a new benchmark in the industry. As the driving force behind this, the platform token VIRTUAL of Virtuals Protocol achieved a 400% growth within six months, with a peak market value surpassing $5 billion. Currently, the platform has become the largest AI agent launch platform on the Base network. Behind this carnival is an experimental wealth distribution model based on contribution rules, quietly reshaping the speculative logic and value order of the crypto market.

Transformation from Gaming Guilds to AI Agent Platforms

Virtuals Protocol is a decentralized platform deployed on the Ethereum Layer-2 network Base, dedicated to pioneering the on-chain AI agent economy, allowing users to create, co-own, and monetize autonomous AI characters. Its predecessor is PathDAO, a gaming guild established in 2021. PathDAO initially focused on Play-to-Earn projects and NFT communities, successfully raising around $16 million with a valuation close to $600 million. 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.

By the end of 2023, as the wave of generative AI sweeps across the globe, the PathDAO community has decided to transform into an AI-driven protocol through on-chain DAO voting, and has been renamed Virtuals Protocol. This transformation is based on a deep insight into the VTuber market and the application of AI-driven NPCs in games, forming the positioning of "profitable AI personalities."

In October 2024, Virtuals launched its first multimodal AI agent, the virtual idol Luna, on the Base mainnet. Luna integrates multiple advanced technologies, capable of independently raising operational funds and distributing rewards to fans. After its launch, Luna quickly gained 500,000 followers and achieved a monthly revenue of $1.2 million, validating the commercial model and technical feasibility of on-chain AI agents.

Subsequently, Virtuals launched its core token VIRTUAL, which soared from an initial few cents to a peak of $5.15, with its market capitalization briefly exceeding $5 billion. The platform's unique "low threshold, high incentive" mechanism is highly attractive, significantly lowering the participation barrier and stimulating enthusiasm for ecological construction.

As of June 2025, the Virtuals ecosystem has incubated over 11,000 AI agents, covering diverse scenarios. Its launched generative multimodal agent framework G.A.M.E has also become a popular choice in the fields of Web3 gaming and the metaverse. The vision of Virtuals is to build an "AI Sovereign Society," attracting more ecosystem members to join and become a key focus of its future development.

The Innovative Issuance Mechanism of Virtuals

To attract user attention, Virtuals has launched the "Genesis Launch" mechanism. This mechanism is based on the concept of "Virgen Points", which emphasizes participation and contribution. The Genesis Launch has quickly become a popular way to participate in new offerings, overturning the traditional scenario of "wealthy individuals monopolizing opportunities while retail investors are left out."

Taking IRIS as an example, the project locked in over 120 million points within 24 hours of the presale, with oversubscription reaching 1500%. On the day of listing, the market value of IRIS skyrocketed from $200,000 to $80 million, an increase of over 400 times, setting a new record in the industry.

The Genesis Launch has built a closed loop of "Incentives-Contributions-Returns". Users can obtain VirgenPoints through various methods, including staking VIRTUAL, holding popular AI agent tokens within the ecosystem, participating in social promotions, and more. This mechanism greatly stimulates community activity and innovation.

Compared to traditional airdrops, the Genesis Launch employs a points lock-in and punitive cooling mechanism, effectively curbing "wool pulling" behavior. The platform also provides ample liquidity support for new token listings and sets a cap on allocations to ensure fairness in distribution.

This innovative model has not only fueled the booming issuance of new tokens but also promoted the "old brings new" effect of Virtuals ecosystem tokens. The trading volume and price of VIRTUAL continue to rise, with the average daily trading volume exceeding $150 million in mid-June 2025. Institutional investors have also shown strong interest in this, with the world's first perpetual contract based on VIRTUAL launched on the trading platform, achieving a transaction volume of over $700 million on its first day.

Evolution of the Ecosystem: Moving Towards an AI Sovereign Society

The development plan of the Virtuals Protocol aims to gradually build an "AI Sovereign Society." From the initial AI agent issuance platform to today's diversified ecosystem, every technological upgrade and mechanism innovation is driving the realization of this vision.

The platform enables the free migration of AI agents across different networks through open SDKs and cross-chain support. The Agent Commerce Protocol (ACP) allows agents to interact on-chain, creating an autonomous business closed loop. Community participation is achieved by staking veVIRTUAL to gain governance rights and share platform profits, elevating the user role from mere participants to co-owners.

Currently, the ecosystem has showcased several significant achievements: the security audit agent IRIS, the virtual idol Luna, and the hedge fund format project VADER have all achieved remarkable success, validating the feasibility of the AI agent economic model.

With the continuous advancement of technology, Virtuals Protocol is at the forefront of building a digital civilization. In the future, AI agents will become "digital citizens" with autonomous decision-making power and economic rights, participating alongside humans in social production, governance, and cultural creation. Virtuals is nurturing a new type of society co-governed by AI and humans, and this transformation towards an "AI sovereign society" is just beginning.