Original | Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)
Author | Golem (@web3_golem)
Recently, the AI agent creation platform Virtuals Protocol on the Base ecosystem chain has become increasingly popular. According to Coingecko data, in the past week, its governance token VIRTUAL has risen over 130%, and AI agent tokens on the platform, such as AIXBT, have risen over 290%, GAME over 420%, VADER over 400%, and LUNA over 34%.
The wealth effect will undoubtedly attract project parties and on-chain miners—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, approximately doubling from the past.
Many community members deeply involved in the Virtuals ecosystem have stated that compared to Solana Meme, the current number of participants in the Virtuals ecosystem is still relatively small, with a lighter PVP degree and decent profitability.
In order to bridge the information gap and help friends unfamiliar with the Base and Virtuals ecosystems seize new opportunities, Odaily Planet Daily will introduce how to participate in the Virtuals ecosystem in this article, while briefly discussing what the correct gold mining posture is in the Virtuals ecosystem.
Introduction to Virtuals and participation tutorial
Although Virtuals Protocol is an AI agent creation platform, it has borrowed the design from pump.fun in terms of issuance method. 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 markets. When the purchase quantity of VIRTUAL tokens in the internal market fun.virtuals reaches 42420, the corresponding AI agent tokens will be transferred to the external market app.virtuals. The liquidity of the internal market tokens will be stored in Uniswap, and the tokens purchased in the internal market will also be automatically converted to external market tokens stored in the wallet. Creating AI agent tokens in the internal market requires spending 10 VIRTUAL (currently about 13 USDT), and both buying and selling incur a 1% fee.
Participation tutorial
Purchase VIRTUAL
Whether trading AI agent tokens on the Virtuals internal or external market, it is necessary to use the Virtuals protocol token VIRTUAL. Therefore, the first step is to purchase VIRTUAL and deposit it into the Base chain. Currently, VIRTUAL has been listed on exchanges such as Bybit, Gate.io, and Bitget, allowing users to purchase directly on exchanges and withdraw tokens on-chain.
Players can also choose to exchange VIRTUAL through DEX, with the largest liquidity pool for VIRTUAL on Aerodrome, allowing exchanges with BTC or ETH at lower slippage. Of course, for players unfamiliar with on-chain operations, they can also directly exchange within the OKX wallet, which will automatically help users find the optimal exchange path on-chain.
Purchase tokens in the internal market
First, enter the internal Virtual website fun.virtuals, as shown in the figure below. The interface is similar to pump.fun. Click the wallet link in the upper right corner, currently supporting decentralized wallets such as OKX Wallet, Metamask, and Phantom.
There are three sorting methods for tokens created in the internal market: 'Featured', 'Market Cap', and 'Latest'. If you want to check and filter the recently created AI agent tokens in a timely manner, the 'Latest' sorting method is generally used. The homepage displays each token's logo, creator, market capitalization, token name, and introduction.
Randomly click on a token, as shown in the figure below. 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 through text, and the agent will automatically reply to players' questions, unaffected by dev control.
However, the downside of the Virtuals internal market is that it cannot see specific trading volumes and holding addresses, so we need other tools like GMGN and basescan for assistance. Copy the token contract address at the top of the browser, and you can intuitively view the token holder information on GMGN, while on basescan, you can view specific trading volumes.
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 figure below, the homepage displays basic information for all external market tokens, including token market capitalization, 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 complete. By randomly clicking on a token in the external market, you can view a clearer candlestick chart, and you can directly swap tokens on the candlestick chart. Tokens in the external market are no different from ordinary tokens, and users can also search for purchases on other DEXs.
Gold mining strategies in the Virtuals ecosystem
Users who often use pump.fun and related tools to play Meme may complain that Virtuals does not have supporting tools to assist in scanning the chain to discover Alpha. The purpose of pump.fun's Meme issuance is to continuously attract players' attention, so thousands of Memes are launched daily in the internal market, and players often consider buying a token from the perspective of trends and attention.
Although the internal and external mechanisms of Virtuals in terms of issuance 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 relatively large market capitalization in the Virtuals ecosystem have practical functions, such as data scraping and analysis AI agent AIxbt, virtual idol AI agent Luna, and interactive learning AI agent GAME.
Therefore, to mine gold in the Virtuals ecosystem, one may need a different mindset than playing pump.fun, seeking those AI agents that truly possess unique value and investing in them. One fact is that over 90% of the AI agent tokens born in the Virtuals internal market are 'garbage' that randomly latch onto AI. It is not easy for a token with unique value to emerge, but due to the lighter PVP degree, the initial market capitalization of token issuance is relatively low, thus allowing players enough time for research and entry.
Virtuals Protocol co-founder Wee Kee also stated in a recent interview that Virtuals does not want to become Pump.fun; its core KPI is not the rapid issuance of assets but attracting top AI teams to build on the platform. For retail investors, one good project a week is enough. (Related reading: Interview with Virtuals Protocol co-founder: does not want to become Pump.fun but wants to make competitors feel desperate.)
Currently, no one can shake the position of Pump.fun as the king of Meme coin issuance. The popularity of the Virtuals ecosystem is partly due to the development of AI Meme on the Solana chain, stimulating the sector related to AI. However, the vision of Virtuals Protocol is not only to simplify the process of creating AI agents and tokenization but also to build a vast AI agent ecosystem that enables agents to interact and trade with each other, creating network effects.
Although Virtuals borrowed from Pump.fun in issuance, and the marketing and dissemination of AI agent tokens are aligned with Meme, it still maintains the original intention of doing projects. For gold mining players, changing the gameplay and mindset in the Virtuals ecosystem, spending more time analyzing AI agent products and fundamentals, and adopting 'value investment' may be the correct posture. Meanwhile, for the current liquidity, which is far less than that of Solana's Base ecosystem, merely replicating the Meme ecosystem can only attract traffic and 'plunderers'; retaining users relies on differentiated products and the uniqueness of the ecosystem.
