Article reprinted from: Odaily Planet Daily

Original | Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)

Author: Golem (@web3_golem)

Recently, Virtuals Protocol, an AI proxy creation platform on the Base ecosystem, has become increasingly popular. According to Coingecko data, its protocol governance token VIRTUAL has increased by more than 130% in the past week, and AI proxy tokens on the platform such as AIXBT have increased by more than 290%, GAME has increased by more than 420%, VADER has increased by more than 400%, and LUNA has increased by more than 34%.

The wealth effect is bound to attract project owners and on-chain gold diggers. According to Dune data, more than 8,779 AI agent tokens have been launched on the Virtuals platform. Since November 29, the number of AI agent tokens created daily has surged, about twice as much as in the past.

Many community members who are deeply involved in the Virtuals ecosystem said that compared to the Solana Meme, the Virtuals ecosystem currently has fewer participants, a lower level of PVP, and has a good money-making effect.

In order to bridge the information gap and enable friends who are not familiar with the Base and Virtuals ecosystems to seize new opportunities, Odaily Planet Daily will introduce in this article how to participate in the Virtuals ecosystem, and briefly discuss what is the correct gold-digging posture in the Virtuals ecosystem.

Virtuals Introduction and Participation Tutorial

Although Virtuals Protocol is an AI agent creation platform, its issuance method draws on the design of pump.fun. Anyone can deploy AI agents with one click through fun.virtuals, while achieving fair issuance of AI agent tokens.

Similar to pump.fun, Virtuals is also divided into internal and external disks. When the number of tokens purchased in the internal disk fun.virtuals reaches 42,420 VIRTUAL, the corresponding AI proxy tokens will be transferred to the external disk app.virtuals, and the token liquidity in the internal disk will be deposited in Uniswap. The tokens purchased by users in the internal disk will also be automatically converted into external disk tokens and deposited in the wallet. It costs 10 VIRTUAL (currently about 13 USDT) to create AI proxy tokens in the internal disk, and a 1% handling fee is charged for both buying and selling.

Take the Tutorial

  • BUY VIRTUAL

Whether trading AI proxy tokens on the Virtuals internal or external market, you need to use the Virtuals protocol token VIRTUAL, so the first step is to buy VIRTUAL and deposit it into the Base chain. Currently, VIRTUAL has been listed on exchanges such as Bybit, Gate.io and Bitget, and users can directly purchase it on the exchange and withdraw the token to the chain.

At the same time, players can also choose to exchange VIRTUAL through DEX. The largest liquidity pool on the VIRTUAL chain is in Aerodrome, and BTC or ETH can be used for exchange with low slippage. Of course, for players who are not familiar with on-chain operations, they can also exchange directly through the OKX wallet, which will automatically help users find the best exchange path on the chain.

  • Buy tokens in the internal market

First, enter the Virtual internal disk website fun.virtuals, as shown below. The interface is similar to pump.fun. Click the wallet link in the upper right corner. Currently, it supports decentralized wallets such as OKX Wallet, Metamask and Phantom.

There are three sorting methods for tokens created in the internal disk: "Featured", "Market Cap" and "Latest". If you want to view and filter the recently created AI proxy tokens in time, you can generally use the "Latest" sorting method. The homepage will display the logo, creator, market value, token name and introduction of each token.

Click on a token randomly, as shown below. The page includes the token K-line, buy and sell area, and internal progress, as well as an interactive area unique to AI agent tokens. Players can communicate with AI agents via text, and the agents will automatically respond to players' questions without being controlled by the dev.

However, the disadvantage of Virtuals is that it is impossible to see data such as specific transaction volume and holding addresses, so we need other tools such as GMGN and basescan to assist. Copy the token contract address above the browser, you can directly view the token holder information on GMGN, and you can view the specific transaction volume on basescan.

  • Buying tokens on the external market

When the internal disk progress is full, the token will be moved to the external disk app.virtuals. As shown in the figure below, the homepage shows the basic information of all external disk tokens, including token market value, daily changes, liquidity, holding addresses, etc.

Compared with the internal market, the information about AI agents and their tokens in the external market is more complete. Clicking a token randomly in the external market can view a clearer candlestick chart, and token swaps can be performed directly on the candlestick chart. The tokens in the external market are actually no different from ordinary tokens, and users can also search and purchase them in other DEXs.

Gold Rush Strategies in Virtuals Ecosystem

If you often use pump.fun and related tools to play Meme, you may complain that Virtuals does not have supporting tools to help scan the chain to find Alpha. The purpose of pump.fun's Meme issuance is to continuously attract the attention of players, so there are thousands of Memes launched in the market every day. Players choose to buy a token and mostly think from the perspective of hot spots and attention.

Although Virtuals’ internal and external disk mechanism is similar to pump.fun in terms of issuance, it is ultimately an AI agent creation platform, not a Meme asset issuance platform. Currently, the AI ​​agent tokens with large market capitalizations that have emerged from the Virtuals ecosystem basically have practical functions, such as data capture and analysis AI agent AIxbt, virtual idol AI agent Luna, and interactive learning AI agent GAME.

Therefore, if you want to make money in the Virtuals ecosystem, you may need a different approach from playing pump.fun, and find those AI agents that truly have unique value and invest in them. The fact is that more than 90% of the AI ​​agent tokens born in the Virtuals market are "junk" AIs. It is not easy to wait for an AI agent token with unique value to appear, but because the PVP level is relatively low, the initial market value of the token issuance is relatively low, so there is enough time for players to invest and get on board.

Wee Kee, co-founder of Virtuals Protocol, also said in the latest interview that Virtuals does not want to become Pump.fun. Its core KPI is not to issue assets quickly and in large quantities, but to attract top AI teams to build on the platform. For retail investors, one good project a week is enough.

Pump.fun is the king of Meme coin issuance, and its status as the king of Meme coin issuance is unshakable. The popularity of Virtuals ecosystem is also due to the development of AI Meme on Solana chain, which has boosted the AI-related sectors. However, the vision of Virtuals Protocol is not only to simplify the process of AI agent creation and tokenization, but also to build a huge AI agent ecosystem, so that agents can interact and trade with each other to form network benefits.

Although Virtuals borrowed from Pump.fun in terms of issuance, and aligned with Meme in terms of AI proxy token marketing and dissemination, it still maintained its original intention of doing the project. For gold diggers, changing the gameplay and thinking in the Virtuals ecosystem, spending more time analyzing AI proxy products and fundamentals, and doing "value investment" may be the right approach. At the same time, for the Base ecosystem, whose current liquidity is far less than Solana, simply replicating the Meme ecosystem can only attract traffic and "predators", and only relying on differentiated products and the uniqueness of the ecosystem can retain users.