Written by: Golem, Odaily Planet Daily
Recently, the AI agent creation platform Virtuals Protocol on the Base ecosystem chain has been gaining popularity. According to Coingecko data, in the past week, its protocol governance token VIRTUAL has increased by over 130%, while AI agent tokens on the platform such as AIXBT have increased by over 290%, GAME by over 420%, VADER by over 400%, and LUNA by over 34%.
The wealth effect will inevitably attract project parties and on-chain prospectors—according to Dune data, over 8779 AI agent tokens have been launched on the Virtuals platform. Since November 29, the daily creation of AI agent tokens has surged to about twice the amount in the past.
Many community members who are deeply involved in the Virtuals ecosystem have indicated that compared to Solana memes, the current number of participants in the Virtuals ecosystem is still relatively small, the level of PVP is light, and there is a decent profit effect.
In order to bridge the information gap and allow friends unfamiliar with the Base and Virtuals ecosystems to seize new opportunities, Odaily Planet Daily will introduce how to participate in the Virtuals ecosystem in this article, while briefly discussing the correct way to strike gold in the Virtuals ecosystem.
Introduction to Virtuals and participation tutorial
Although Virtuals Protocol is a platform for creating AI agents, it has borrowed the design from pump.fun in its issuance method. Anyone can deploy AI agents with one click through fun.virtuals and achieve fair issuance of AI agent tokens.
Similar to pump.fun, Virtuals is also divided into internal and external markets. When the number of tokens purchased in the internal market fun.virtuals reaches 42,420 VIRTUAL, the corresponding AI agent tokens will be transferred to the external market app.virtuals. The liquidity of tokens in the internal market will be stored in Uniswap, and the tokens purchased in the internal market will also be automatically converted into external market tokens and stored in wallets. Creating AI agent tokens in the internal market requires spending 10 VIRTUAL (currently about 13 USDT), and a 1% fee is charged for both buying and selling.
Participation Tutorial
Purchase VIRTUAL
Whether trading AI agent tokens in the Virtuals internal market or the external market, you need to use the Virtuals protocol token VIRTUAL. Therefore, the first step is to purchase VIRTUAL and deposit it on the Base chain. Currently, VIRTUAL has already been listed on exchanges such as Bybit, Gate.io, and Bitget, where users can directly purchase and withdraw to the chain.
Players can also choose to exchange VIRTUAL through DEX. The largest liquidity pool for VIRTUAL on-chain is at Aerodrome, which can be exchanged with BTC or ETH 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 optimal exchange path on-chain.
Purchase tokens in the internal market
First, enter the Virtual internal market website fun.virtuals, as shown in the picture. The interface is similar to pump.fun. Click the link in the upper right corner to connect your wallet. Currently, decentralized wallets such as OKX Wallet, Metamask, and Phantom are supported.
Tokens created in the internal market can be sorted in three ways: 'Featured', 'Market Cap', and 'Latest'. If you want to promptly check and filter the recently created AI agent tokens, the 'Latest' sorting method is generally used. The homepage will display each token's logo, creator, market cap, token name, and description.
Randomly click on a token, as shown in the picture. The page includes the token's candlestick chart, buy/sell area, and internal market progress, as well as an interactive area unique to AI agent tokens. Players can communicate with the AI agent via text, and the agent will automatically reply to players' questions without being controlled by the dev.
However, the drawback of the Virtuals internal market is that we cannot see specific trading volumes and holding addresses; therefore, we need other tools like GMGN, basescan, etc., for assistance. By copying the token contract address at the top of the browser, you can intuitively view the token holder information on GMGN, and on basescan, you can check the specific trading volume.
Purchase tokens in the external market
Once the internal market progress is full, the tokens will be moved to the external market app.virtuals. As shown in the picture, the homepage displays the basic information of all external market tokens, including token market cap, daily changes, liquidity, holding addresses, and more.
Compared to the internal market, the information about AI agents and their tokens in the external market is also more comprehensive. By randomly clicking on a token in the external market, you can view clearer candlestick charts, and you can also directly swap tokens 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 on other DEXs.
Gold prospecting strategies in the Virtuals ecosystem
Users who frequently use pump.fun and related tools to play memes may complain that Virtuals does not have matching tools to assist in scanning the chain for alpha. The purpose of the meme issuance on pump.fun is to continuously attract players' attention, so thousands of memes are launched in the internal market every day. Players often choose to buy a token from the perspective of trends, attention, and other aspects.
Although in terms of issuance methods, the internal and external market mechanisms of Virtuals are similar to pump.fun, it is ultimately an AI agent creation platform, not a meme asset issuance platform. Currently, the AI agent tokens with larger market values that have emerged in the Virtuals ecosystem generally have practical functions, such as data scraping and analysis AI agents like AIxbt, virtual idol-type AI agents like Luna, and interactive learning-type AI agents like GAME.
Therefore, if you want to strike gold in the Virtuals ecosystem, you may need a different approach from playing pump.fun, finding those AI agents that truly have unique value and investing in them. One fact is that over 90% of the AI agent tokens born in the internal market of Virtuals are 'garbage' that just opportunistically uses AI. It is not easy for a token with unique value to emerge, but because the level of PVP is relatively light, the initial market values of token issuance are low, thus giving players enough time to research and enter.
Wee Kee, co-founder of Virtuals Protocol, also stated in a recent interview that Virtuals does not want to become Pump.fun; its core KPI is not to quickly and abundantly issue assets but to attract top AI teams to build on the platform. For retail investors, one good project a week is enough.
Currently, no one can shake the position of Pump.fun as the king of meme coin issuance. The boom in the Virtuals ecosystem is partly due to the development of AI memes on the Solana chain, which has driven the sectors related to AI. However, the vision of Virtuals Protocol is not only to simplify the creation and tokenization of AI agents but also to build a vast AI agent ecosystem where agents can interact and trade, forming network effects.
Although Virtuals has borrowed from Pump.fun in its issuance, and the marketing and dissemination of AI agent tokens align with memes, it still maintains the original intention to develop projects. For gold prospectors, changing gameplay and mindset in the Virtuals ecosystem, spending more time analyzing AI agent products and fundamentals, and making 'value investments' may be the correct stance. Also, for the current Base ecosystem, which has far less liquidity than Solana, merely replicating the meme ecosystem can only attract traffic and 'predators'; retaining users relies on differentiated products and the uniqueness of the ecosystem.
