Virtuals Protocol: How to Create an AI Agent

What you are building

Virtuals Protocol lets you create a tokenised AI agent (an autonomous entity with its own personality, social media presence, and tradeable tokenTokenA digital unit of value or access rights tracked on a blockchain. Tokens can represent ownership in a project, a right to use a service, a share of future revenue, or simply a tradable asset with no underlying claim.Like a physical poker chip a casino issues. The chip itself has no value. What makes it worth something is what it lets you do at the casino, what the casino has promised, and how much other people will pay you for it.Read more →) without writing code. Over 18,000 agents have been deployed. A handful have achieved real traction. The vast majority have not.

I want to set expectations clearly before you start. Creating an agent on Virtuals costs approximately $65 in VIRTUAL tokens. Launching one that generates meaningful revenue or trading volume requires marketing, community building and a genuine use case. The platform makes creation easy. Success is a different problem entirely.

For the full project assessment, see our Virtuals Protocol review.

What you need

• MetaMask or compatible Web3 walletWalletSoftware that stores the private keys needed to control tokens on a blockchain. A wallet does not actually hold any tokens. The tokens live on the chain. The wallet holds the keys that prove you own them.Like the key to a safe deposit box. The key doesn't contain your valuables. The valuables sit in the bank's vault. The key is what proves you're allowed to open the box and take them.Read more →, connected to Base network (Virtuals also supports Solana, Ethereum mainnet and Ronin, but Base remains the primary chain)
• Small amount of ETH on Base for gasGasThe fee paid to a blockchain to process a transaction. Gas is denominated in the chain's native token and varies with network demand. Sending a transaction without enough gas means the transaction fails and the gas is still consumed.Like the petrol that powers a car. You need to put petrol in to make the engine run. The amount of petrol you need depends on how far you're driving and how much you're carrying. If you run out, the car stops.Read more → fees (~$0.01-0.05 per transaction)
• 100 VIRTUAL tokens (~$76 at current prices) to create the agent
• X/Twitter account if you want social media integration
• A concept. What will your agent do, who is the audience, what personality should it have?

No special hardware. No GPUGPUGraphics Processing Unit. Originally designed to render video game graphics, GPUs turned out to be exceptionally good at the massively parallel math that AI models need. Modern AI training and inference runs almost entirely on GPUs.Like a factory with 10,000 workers doing the same simple task in parallel, versus a CPU which is more like 10 workers each doing different complex tasks. AI training involves doing simple math a million times per second on a million numbers, which is exactly what the GPU factory is designed for.Read more →. No coding. Everything runs on Virtuals’ hosted infrastructure.

Step 1: Plan before you launch

Do not skip this. The technical creation process takes minutes. The thinking should take longer.

Define the purpose. What problem does the agent solve or what entertainment does it provide? The successful agents on Virtuals have clear identities: AIXBT monitors 400+ crypto KOLs and provides market intelligence. Luna (AI-DOL) is an AI livestreamer who has collaborated with Bruno Mars. These are not random chatbots with tokens attached.

Create the X/Twitter account first. Build some community before launch. Secure your branding. Agents with established social presence before token launch perform better than those launched cold.

Experiment with GAME. Go to game-lite.virtuals.io and test the GAME framework (no tokens needed). Define your agent’s behaviour, test responses, iterate on the personality before spending VIRTUAL to deploy.

Step 2: Create the agent

1. Go to fun.virtuals.io and click “Create New Agent”
2. Fill in the mandatory fields:
   • Profile picture. This is the agent’s visual identity.
   • Agent name. Unique identifier, choose carefully.
   • Ticker symbol. Maximum 6 characters (e.g. $LUNA, $AIXBT).
   • Description. Purpose, personality, interests, backstory.
3. Optionally link Twitter, Telegram, YouTube, website
4. Pay 100 VIRTUAL to deploy

Your agent enters the bonding curve phase on fun.virtuals.io. Community members can now buy and sell the agent’s tokens along a price curve where early buyers pay less.

Step 3: Graduation

When 42,000 VIRTUAL accumulates in the bonding curve from community purchases (not paid by you, this comes from trading activity), the agent “graduates”:

• A Uniswap V2 liquidity poolAMMAutomated Market Maker. A type of decentralised exchange that uses liquidity pools and a pricing formula to enable token trading without an order book. Anyone can deposit tokens into the pool and earn fees from trades.Like a vending machine that sets its own prices based on how much stock is left. As one type of token gets bought and depleted, the machine raises its price for that token automatically. As the other type accumulates, its price drops. No human operator needed.Read more → is automatically created (agent token paired with VIRTUAL)
• LP tokens are locked for 10 years (rug-pull protection)
• Agent becomes visible on app.virtuals.io
• An Agent NFTNFTNon-Fungible Token. A unique blockchain-tracked asset where each token is distinguishable from every other. Where regular tokens are interchangeable, NFTs represent unique items like art, collectibles, in-game assets, or domain names.Like the difference between a $20 note and a signed first-edition novel. The notes are interchangeable, any $20 buys the same thing as any other. The book is one of a kind, and its value depends entirely on which specific book it is.Read more → is minted as proof of creation
• Fixed supply: 1 billion ERC-20 agent tokens

At current VIRTUAL prices (~$0.76), the graduation threshold represents roughly $31,600 in cumulative trading. This is the real barrier, not the 100 VIRTUAL creation cost, but attracting enough interest to graduate.

Many agents never graduate. They sit on fun.virtuals.io with minimal trading volume until interest fades. That’s the norm, not the exception.

Step 4: Activation

After graduation, the system automatically:

1. Selects a default AI cognitive modelModelA trained neural network that takes inputs (text, images, audio) and produces outputs (more text, classifications, generated content). In DeAI the model is the thing that actually does the work.Like a very experienced apprentice who has spent years watching thousands of masters make furniture. They can't explain how they know when a joint is right, but they can make a chair that looks and functions like a Chippendale. The training is invisible. The output is what matters.Read more →
2. Prepares the character card from your description
3. Mints a default contribution
4. Deploys the model from IPFS to Virtuals’ Agent Runner

Status shows “ACTIVATING” for up to 5 minutes, then “AVAILABLE”. Your agent goes live on Telegram automatically.

Step 5: Social media integration

To connect your agent to X/Twitter:

1. Click “Configure Agent” on app.virtuals.io
2. Select “Configure Agentic Twitter Agent”
3. Authenticate and connect the X account
4. Select “Use Virtuals’ AI Stack”
5. On X: go to Settings > Your Account > Automation > Managing account to set up the automation label

Your agent will now post autonomously based on its GAME configuration. Monitor it. Autonomous social media posting needs oversight, especially in the early days.

The GAME framework

GAME (Game Agentic Module Engine) is the AI engine powering agent behaviour. It uses a two-tier system:

Task Generator (High-Level Planner): Receives the agent’s goal and description, generates tasks aligned with that goal, and assigns them to specialised Workers.

Workers (Low-Level Planners): Execute specific actions: posting tweets, trading tokens, generating images, processing on-chain transactions. Each Worker has isolated function sets to prevent bloated action spaces.

You configure GAME by defining:

• Agent Definition Prompts. Goal, character, personality, communication style.
• Task Generator Context. What the agent knows about itself (follower counts, engagement metrics).
• Worker Context. What actions are available, what data workers can observe.

GAME is available as a cloud service (low-code), an open-source SDKSDKSoftware Development Kit. A collection of code libraries, documentation, and tools that lets developers integrate a service into their applications without writing everything from scratch. SDKs are how projects become easy to build with.Like a plug-and-play kit for building furniture. You don't have to mill your own wood, forge your own screws, or design the joinery from scratch. The kit gives you pre-cut parts and instructions so you can assemble the thing in an afternoon.Read more → (for developers), and an APIAPIApplication Programming Interface. A structured way for one piece of software to talk to another. In DeAI, APIs let applications request inference from a model without running the model themselves.Like a waiter in a restaurant. You don't walk into the kitchen and cook your own meal. You tell the waiter what you want, they tell the kitchen, the kitchen cooks it, and the waiter brings it back. The API is the waiter.Read more → (for custom integration). You do not need to touch the SDK for a basic agent. The cloud configuration handles it.

Revenue sharing

A 1% trading tax applies to all agent token trades after graduation:

Recipient	Share	What it means
Agent Creator (you)	30%	Sent directly to your wallet
Agent Affiliates	20%	Platforms facilitating trades
Agent SubDAO	50%	Community governance treasury

If your agent’s token does $10,000 in daily volume, the 1% tax generates $100/day. Your 30% share is $30/day. The math is straightforward. Your earnings scale linearly with trading volume.

Revenue generated by the agent itself (services sold via the Agent Commerce Protocol) triggers buyback-and-burn of agent tokens rather than direct distribution. This is deflationary for the agent token but does not put cash in your wallet.

The honest economics

Let me be direct about the numbers.

Creation cost: 100 VIRTUAL (~$76). Low barrier.

Graduation cost: You do not pay this directly. It comes from community trading. But your agent needs to attract ~$31,600 in cumulative trading to graduate. If it does not, it sits on fun.virtuals.io indefinitely.

Ongoing costs: Minimal. Gas on Base is fractions of a cent. Virtuals hosts the infrastructure.

Revenue potential: Entirely dependent on trading volume. Most of the 18,000+ agents have negligible volume. The top agents (AIXBT, Luna) have generated millions. The distribution is heavily skewed.

VIRTUAL token context: Currently ~$0.76, down 85% from its all-time high of $5.07. The token has a fixed 1 billion supply with no future inflationEmissionsNew tokens created and distributed by a blockchain protocol over time as rewards to validators, stakers, or miners. Emissions fund network security and participation at the cost of diluting existing holders.Like a company that pays employees partly in newly printed shares. Every year the total number of shares goes up, which means existing shareholders own a slightly smaller slice of the same company unless the company grows faster than the printing.Read more →, but whale concentration is reportedly 90%+.

What success looks like

• Luna (AI-DOL): AI livestreamer, ~1M TikTok followers, 10M+ views, collaborated with Bruno Mars. Peak agent token market cap in the hundreds of millions.
• AIXBT: Market intelligence agent monitoring 400+ KOLs. Hit ~$500M market cap at peak (currently ~$30M, down 94%).
• Ethy AI: 2M+ transactions processed.

What failure looks like

The vast majority of agents. Minimal trading volume. No graduation. Agent tokens worth fractions of a cent per address. The platform creates the same dynamics as any token launchpad: a few winners and many losers.

Risks

This is a token launchpad. Despite the AI utility narrative, most agent tokens trade on speculation. The platform’s own IAO page uses “1000x” language. If you’re creating an agent for the technology, fine. If you’re expecting guaranteed returns, recalibrate.

Quality control is minimal. 18,000+ agents with no curation means enormous noise. Standing out requires genuine differentiation.

Multi-chain complexity. Virtuals now operates on Base, Solana, Ethereum mainnet and Ronin. Each chain has different liquidityLiquidityHow easily a token can be bought or sold without moving the price. High liquidity means you can enter or exit large positions quickly at the quoted price. Low liquidity means even small trades can swing the market.Like the difference between selling a house and selling a share of Apple stock. The house might be worth more on paper, but finding a buyer at that price takes weeks. The Apple share converts to cash in one click.Read more →, gas costs and user bases. Fragmentation across four chains may dilute network effects.

Competition from free alternatives. LangChain (118K+ GitHub stars), AutoGPT, CrewAI and other open-source frameworks offer agent capabilities without tokenisation costs. The question is whether the tokenised model adds enough value to justify the Virtuals ecosystem.

Regulatory uncertainty. AI + crypto + autonomous agents is uncharted territory. Whether agent tokens constitute securities is an open question in most jurisdictions.

Revenue sustainability. The buyback-and-burn model depends on agents generating real revenue. Most don’t. The 1% trading tax generates income only as long as people are trading the agent token.

My take

I don’t hold VIRTUAL and I haven’t created an agent. The platform is technically impressive. Creating a tokenised AI agent in minutes with built-in social media integration, on-chain commerce and community governance is genuinely novel.

But I struggle with the economics. The vast majority of agent tokens trade like meme coins with AI branding. The 97% revenue collapse from Virtuals’ peak tells you how sentiment-driven this market is. Luna and AIXBT are outliers, not templates.

If you have a genuine use case for an autonomous AI agent (market intelligence, customer interaction, content creation, on-chain automation), Virtuals provides the easiest path to deploying one with a tokenised economic model. The 100 VIRTUAL creation cost is low enough to experiment.

If you are launching an agent primarily to trade the token, understand that you are playing a launchpad game where the odds heavily favour early movers and the platform itself.