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, over the past week, its protocol governance token VIRTUAL has risen more than 130%, and AI agent tokens on the platform like AIXBT have risen over 290%, GAME over 420%, VADER over 400%, and LUNA over 34%.
The wealth effect will inevitably attract project parties and on-chain miners — according to Dune data, over 8,779 AI agent tokens have been launched on the Virtuals platform, and since November 29th, the daily creation of AI agent tokens has surged, about twice that of the past.
Many community members who are deeply involved in the Virtuals ecosystem say that compared to Solana Meme, the current number of participants in the Virtuals ecosystem is still relatively small, the PVP level is low, and it has a good profit effect.
To bridge the information gap and enable 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 what the correct mining posture in the Virtuals ecosystem is.
Introduction and participation tutorial for Virtuals
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 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 deposited into Uniswap, and the tokens purchased in the internal market will automatically be converted into external market tokens and stored in the wallet. Creating AI agent tokens in the internal market requires spending 10 VIRTUAL (currently about 13 USDT), and a 1% handling fee is charged for both buying and selling.
Participation tutorial
Purchase VIRTUAL
Whether trading AI agent tokens in the Virtuals internal or external market, you need 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 launched on exchanges such as Bybit, Gate.io, and Bitget, and users can directly purchase and withdraw tokens to the chain from these exchanges.
Players can also choose to exchange VIRTUAL through DEX, with the largest liquidity pool on the VIRTUAL chain being in Aerodrome, where BTC or ETH can be used for low-slippage exchanges. 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.
Buying tokens in the internal market
First, enter the internal market website fun.virtuals, as shown in the figure below. The interface is similar to pump.fun. Click the link in the upper right corner to connect your wallet. It currently supports decentralized wallets such as OKX Wallet, Metamask, and Phantom.
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 most recently created AI agent tokens, you generally use the 'Latest' sorting method. The homepage will display each token's logo, creator, market value, token name, and description.
Randomly click on a token, as shown in the figure below. The page includes the token candlestick chart, buy/sell area, and internal market progress, as well as an interactive area unique to AI agent tokens. Players can communicate with AI agents in text, and the agents will automatically reply to player questions, without being controlled by devs.
However, the downside of the Virtuals internal market is that specific transaction volume and holding address data cannot be seen, so we need other tools like GMGN and basescan for assistance. Copy the token contract address in the browser's address bar, and you can intuitively view the token holder information on GMGN, while basescan allows you to check specific transaction volumes.
Buying 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 the basic information of all external market tokens, including token market value, daily changes, liquidity, holding addresses, etc.
Compared to the internal market, information about AI agents and their tokens in the external market is also more comprehensive. In the external market, clicking randomly on a token allows you to view a clearer candlestick chart, and you can directly swap tokens on the candlestick chart. The tokens in the external market are practically no different from ordinary tokens, and users can also search for purchases on other DEXs.
Mining strategy in the Virtuals ecosystem
Users who often use pump.fun and related tools to play Meme may complain that Virtuals lacks supporting tools to help scan chains for Alpha. The purpose of pump.fun's Meme issuance is to continuously attract players' attention, so thousands of Memes are launched in the internal market every day, and players often think about buying a token from the perspective of hot spots and attention.
Although the issuance methods of Virtuals' internal and external markets 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 AI agents like Luna, and interactive learning AI agents like GAME.
Therefore, to mine gold in the Virtuals ecosystem, perhaps a different approach from playing pump.fun is needed, to find those AI agents that truly possess unique value and invest in them. One fact is that more than 90% of the AI agent tokens born in the Virtuals internal market are 'garbage' that just ride on AI. It is not easy for a token with unique value to emerge, but because the PVP level is relatively low, the initial market value of token issuance is also low, so there is also enough time for players to research and get in.
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 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.
Currently, no one can shake the status of Pump.fun as the king of Meme coin issuance. The popularity of the Virtuals ecosystem is partly due to the development of AI Memes on the Solana chain, which has driven the related sectors. However, the vision of Virtuals Protocol is not only to simplify the process of creating AI agents and tokenizing them but also to build a large AI agent ecosystem that allows agents to interact and trade with each other, forming network effects.
Although Virtuals has drawn on Pump.fun for its issuance, and the marketing and promotion of AI agent tokens align with Meme, it still maintains an original intention of developing projects. For mining players, changing gameplay and thinking in the Virtuals ecosystem, spending more time analyzing AI agent products and fundamentals, and making 'value investments' might be the correct approach. At the same time, for the current liquidity of the Base ecosystem, which is far inferior to Solana, merely replicating the Meme ecosystem can only attract traffic and 'predators'; it is the differentiation of products and the uniqueness of the ecosystem that can retain users.
