Article source: Deep Tide TechFlow
Ancestor: Deep Tide TechFlow
Last year, we noticed the VIRTUALS Protocol early on when the AI Agent craze had not yet begun, and the market cap of the VIRTUAL token was only around $800k.
The later story is well known, Virtuals initiated a wave of AI Agents on Base, and besides the bright performance of the Virtuals tokens themselves, it also led to the phenomenon of the AIXBT token.
But after a cycle, the hype around AI Agents gradually dissipated, and the market seemed to fall into silence; with the emergence and iteration of large models like DeepSeek, everyone felt that the narrative of AI Agents in Web3 was gradually being debunked and was of little use.
When you let your guard down and feel disheartened about the market, new ways to create assets always emerge and can lead to drastic fluctuations in token prices.
In the past week, the Virtuals token has risen by 150%, and within the last day, it has increased by 42%. Discussions related to Virtuals have once again returned to the timeline of crypto news.
The catalyst that led to the rise of Virtuals was undoubtedly the Genesis Launch event launched on its own platform.
If you haven't heard of this event so far, you can briefly understand it as:
Allows you to acquire the 'priority purchase rights' for popular new AI agent tokens by holding $VIRTUAL tokens and earning points.
Simply put, this is a change in the 'new launch' model.
Each generation of versions brings forth new assets. New tokens, new stories, new mechanisms can always ignite market enthusiasm.
Designing various activities and mechanisms around asset creation can easily open up new trends.
The last wave of AI Agent frenzy on Base was largely driven by Virtuals; does this round of Genesis Launch contain new opportunities?
We also experienced the product, quickly taking you through the gameplay and mechanism of this Genesis Launch.
Contribution first, laid-back new launches
From the official description, the Genesis Launch is a fair launch platform specifically designed for AI agent tokens by the Virtuals Protocol.
In simple terms, it is a mechanism that allows new AI agent projects to issue tokens through community-driven methods. Users can gain priority allocation rights for these new tokens by holding $VIRTUAL tokens and earning points.
In other words, unlike Pump.fun where everyone can compete by speed, participating in the new token launches on Virtuals is conditional; and this condition essentially uses prior contributions to some extent to curb the rush for chips at the opening.
Specifically, in previous platforms' new launches, sniper bots would use high-speed scripts to buy low-priced chips, while scientists could use bulk wallets and gas fee bidding to dominate most of the shares. Retail investors sometimes couldn't even finish loading the trading interface before the token prices doubled.
To participate in new launches, you need to know how to set gas fees, monitor contract deployments, and even get up in the middle of the night to keep an eye on on-chain dynamics. Ordinary players often lack this technical skill and energy, ultimately just watching technical experts profit from new launches while they struggle to get their share.
This Genesis Launch appears to be relatively laid-back and gentle; you don't have to frantically rush for speed when the new launch opens, but instead, it has changed the logic:
Want to participate in new AI token launches? Then contribute to the Virtuals ecosystem first, and gather enough points.
How do you earn points? For example, holding $VIRTUAL tokens, staking other tokens, or helping Virtuals with promotions through content contributions, etc. This logic will also be explained in detail later.
But looking at the overall situation, the effect caused by the Genesis Launch is that it has simplified 'new launches' to the extreme.
You only need to hold $VIRTUAL tokens, gather enough points, and then stake both during the 24-hour presale window for the new tokens; the system will automatically calculate your share of new tokens.
Detailed explanation of point mechanics
Next, let's take a closer look at the gameplay of points new launches.
First, how do you earn points?
The official has provided three ways to earn points:
Invest in other Agents within the Virtuals ecosystem, currently there are two categories: Sentient (emotion-based AI Agents) and Prototype (prototype AI Agents). This essentially means using Virtuals to purchase some AI Agent tokens that already existed in the previous ecosystem, and after buying, the points are equivalent to cashback, which you can then use to participate in the Genesis Launch on the platform.
Directly buy and hold Virtuals tokens. This doesn't require much introduction, it's like hoarding coins to receive points, similar to a loyalty reward.
Stake $VADER tokens. VADER is also a token of an AI Agent project Vader AI within the Virtuals ecosystem, and holding this token for staking can earn points for participating in new launches, essentially supporting the Vader AI project. The author believes this sets a leading example for ecological support because staking rules are not set in stone, and other projects may also become 'staking for points' candidates in the future.
It is important to note that this points system is dynamically updated every day.
Virtuals will distribute a certain total number of points daily, according to different allocation ratios, to players who engage in the above three types of behaviors to incentivize their contributions to the ecosystem.
From the allocation ratio perspective, purchasing other AI Agents in the ecosystem accounts for 75% of the point distribution weight; directly holding tokens accounts for about 20%, while the remaining 5% is allocated to staking VADER tokens.
This may also explain to some extent why the tokens within the Virtuals ecosystem, as well as the $VIRTUAL token itself, have seen a significant rise in the past week or two.
After understanding this point rule, let's look at how new AI tokens are issued.
Genesis Launch uses a 24-hour presale window, with transparent distribution rules to prevent monopolization, as follows:
Allocation proportion: 37.5% of the total supply of new tokens is allocated for presale, 12.5% is injected into liquidity pools (such as Sentient Agent pools), and the remaining 50% is allocated for project development, finance, and marketing. The 37.5% for presale is the 'big cake' that retail investors can snatch.
Dynamic allocation: During the 24-hour presale window, the points you stake will determine your allocation share. The more points you have, the more tokens you will receive, but each person can only receive a maximum of 0.5% of the total supply to prevent large holders from monopolizing the pool. The system will calculate each person's ratio in real time based on the total points pool of all participants. For example, 1000 points in a total points pool of 100,000 may get 1% of the presale allocation.
Refund mechanism: If the staked $VIRTUAL and points are not fully used? Don't worry, the system will also return them to you.
In the process of 'new launching' during Genesis Launch, you need to simultaneously stake points and $VIRTUAL tokens to compete for the allocation rights of new AI tokens.
A simple process is as follows:
Hold $VIRTUAL: Buy $VIRTUAL tokens and prepare your 'ticket'.
Gather points: Obtain a certain number of points through the three modes of point acquisition mentioned above.
Stake to participate: After the new token presale begins, within the 24-hour window on the Virtuals official website, stake your points and $VIRTUAL. The system will estimate the amount of $VIRTUAL needed for staking.
Wait for allocation: After the presale ends, the system calculates your share based on the total points pool, and the new tokens are directly credited to you. Any unused $VIRTUAL and points will be returned.
Receive or trade: After receiving the new tokens, you can hold them or trade on a DEX.
Points are your 'priority certificate' for participating in new launches, determining how much of the new tokens you can receive. The more points you have, the higher the allocation ratio (but each person is capped at 0.5% of the total supply of new tokens).
It is important to note that points will be consumed when participating in the presale. If you do not use the points allocated to you by Virtuals, they will expire after a certain period, so you are also encouraged to invest points to participate in new launches.
The Virtuals token itself is the cost you invest when participating in new launches, and the system will also suggest the amount of Virtuals tokens you need to invest based on your points input, with the logic being:
More points mean a higher cap on the tokens you can receive from new launches;
Fewer points mean investing more Virtuals in new launches is not very meaningful.
To prevent monopolization, a wallet can invest a maximum of 566 Virtuals for new launches, and there is also a 1% transaction tax.
What if you don't have enough points and don't want to buy old assets?
Virtuals has also launched its own Yaps mechanism, allowing users to earn points through content contributions and promotions, providing more options for players who want to participate in new launches at low cost.
Start new asset launches, activate old assets
Experience tells us that when designing mechanisms around crypto assets, one cannot just think one step at a time; it's best to maximize benefits.
The gameplay of Genesis Launch is obviously about creating new assets while revitalizing old assets.
In the Virtuals ecosystem, established AI tokens (like Luna, AIXBT) already have their own market stories.
As the AI Agent frenzy cools down, the trading volume and community enthusiasm for these old tokens have inevitably experienced a significant decline.
This wave, requiring points for new launches, with points needing to be earned through purchasing old assets, is designed to increase the demand for old assets through new rules of asset creation, thereby pushing up the prices of those old assets.
Meanwhile, the prices of new assets on Virtuals are quietly rising, as not many people are currently participating.
For instance, the BasisOS token that was born through this Genesis Launch has reached a market cap of 5.5M within 12 days since its launch, increasing 40 times since its initial launch.
In the absence of significant changes in Virtuals' technology and narrative background, this 'new brings old' method at the level of asset issuance can indeed stir some waves in the currently sluggish market.
And if you look back at the broader environment, you'll find that previously popular AI Agent tokens have all experienced some degree of rebound.
Thus, the narrative of AI Agents may not have truly collapsed but is in urgent need of new asset issuance methods; the leading projects of the previous cycle are also actively seeking self-rescue, expanding with more gameplay to rekindle market enthusiasm.
Everyone's thinking is similar; it seems that ai16z on the Solana ecosystem is also doing similar things, creating a new asset launch platform Auto.fun, and then through rule design, creating economic incentives for demand for AI16Z tokens, thereby driving price changes for old tokens.
When 'bringing in the new with the old' became a new gameplay for AI Agent platforms this time, a better way for us is to treat the old coins as Beta, and in this not-so-competitive market environment, actively seek new Alpha.