How much is the VIRTUAL price? What is the Virtuals protocol?

According to Gate market data, as of May 14, 2025, the price of VIRTUAL is $1.96, with a 24-hour trading volume of $384 million across the network. The current circulating market capitalization of VIRTUAL is reported at $1.28 billion, ranking 70th in the cryptocurrency market. Although the current price is down over 60% from the historical high of $5.15 in January 2025, recent significant recovery in market sentiment has led to a 32.3% increase in VIRTUAL over the past 7 days and a 257.5% increase over the past 30 days, indicating that funds are accelerating into the AI agent sector.

What is Virtuals Protocol?

Virtuals Protocol was established in 2021, originally as the GameFi guild PathDAO, and later transformed into an AI-driven blockchain protocol in 2023, aiming to achieve the tokenization of AI agents and community co-ownership. The core concept of the project is to make virtual characters (such as NPCs, virtual idols, etc.) into shareable and revenue-generating assets, thereby lowering the development threshold for AI applications and fairly distributing the resulting profits.

Its technical architecture consists of three core modules: first, a multimodal AI agent that possesses text, voice, and animation interaction capabilities, and can make independent decisions and conduct on-chain transactions; second, a modular contribution system that allows users to upload data, models, etc., and secure rights through NFTs; third, a plug-and-play API/SDK that enables third-party developers to easily integrate AI roles, significantly reducing development costs.

VIRTUAL is the core token of the Virtuals Protocol ecosystem, with a total supply of 1 billion tokens, adopting a deflationary mechanism. It is mainly used for agent creation (IAO), yield buyback, and community governance. Users can stake VIRTUAL to create new agent tokens, such as LUNA from AI idol Luna, and the system will automatically generate liquidity and allocate profits, creating a “value flywheel.”

The application scenarios of Virtuals cover gaming, social interactions, and IP co-creation. In gaming, AI NPCs can carry on memories and dialogues across platforms; in the social field, Luna has over 500,000 fans and generates revenue through NFT gifts; users can also train AI around well-known IPs and achieve automatic profit sharing.

As of May 2025, the platform has deployed over 1,000 AI agents and is collaborating with institutions such as Standard Chartered Bank to explore financial scenarios, with a market capitalization of the token surpassing 1 billion USD. With its modular architecture, decentralized governance, and user co-creation mechanism, Virtuals Protocol is becoming an important infrastructure for the Web3 virtual economy.

Virtuals Protocol Future Outlook

With the recovery of the cryptocurrency market, the AI agent sector has regained market attention, and VIRTUAL, as one of the leading tokens in the AI agent sector, is currently standing at the forefront of a new wave of interest. Although VIRTUAL has retraced over 60% from its peak earlier this year, it has achieved an increase of over 250% in the past 30 days, with a noticeable influx of funds.

The current market generally views the long-term potential of AI native assets positively. The advantages of VIRTUAL in ecological implementation, community participation, and deflationary mechanisms provide solid support for its subsequent rise. If the ecosystem continues to expand and cooperation deepens, Virtuals Protocol is expected to become a long-term core asset in the track of the integration of AI and Web3.

Author: Icing, Gate.io researcher *This article only represents the author’s views and does not constitute any trading advice. Investment carries risks, and users should make cautious decisions. *This content is original and owned by Gate.io. If you need to reprint it, please indicate the author and source; otherwise, legal responsibility will be pursued.