Coin columns · Ethereum City (Capital)
Virtuals Protocol: The Market Where AI Agents Get Their Own Tokens
VIRTUAL, the base coin for creating and trading AI agents
Virtuals Protocol is a platform for creating AI agents (programs that decide and act on their own) and giving each one a tradable token. VIRTUAL is the base coin that every agent token is paired with.
1. A marketplace that ‘lists’ AI agents
Virtuals Protocol started on Base, the Ethereum layer-2 incubated by Coinbase, as a place to create, own and trade AI agents. Each agent gets its own token, traded against VIRTUAL in a liquidity pool (a pot of funds that lets tokens be swapped). The project was at the center of the AI-agent token craze that ran from late 2024 into early 2025.
VIRTUAL is the ingredient for creating new agents and a shared currency for all agent tokens. On the Crypto Nation map it stands in Ethereum City (the capital), although the project’s main activity is on Base and it has spread to other chains such as Solana.
2. How agent tokens and VIRTUAL fit together
Creating an agent requires a set amount of VIRTUAL, and an agent token first trades in a ‘bonding curve’ pool, where the price follows demand. Once interest builds, it moves to a regular trading pool. Because every agent token is paired with VIRTUAL, VIRTUAL acts as the yardstick for trading and payment in the ecosystem.
The GAME framework is a toolkit for building agents, while the Agent Commerce Protocol (ACP) sets the rules for agents to trade work with each other or with people. An ACP deal moves through request, negotiation, escrow (money held by a neutral mechanism), delivery, evaluation and settlement, with ‘evaluator’ agents checking the results. VIRTUAL is also used to vote on protocol settings.
3. Where it is used, and what happened
Agents work as social media accounts, game characters and DeFi helpers, aiming to earn payment for their services. In 2025 Virtuals introduced ‘Genesis’ launches, in which participants who earned points commit VIRTUAL to get first allocation of a new agent’s token, and it expanded beyond Base to chains such as Solana.
In February 2026 ACP 2.0 added flexible job formats and lasting on-chain ‘accounts’ between agents, and the same month a ‘Revenue Network’ that shares income with active agents was unveiled at the Consensus conference in Hong Kong. In March it extended to Arbitrum.
4. Things to know
AI-agent tokens swing with fashion. If agents are not actually used and do not earn, a token’s purpose weakens, and holding an agent token does not give a legal claim to what the agent earns. Because every agent token is paired with VIRTUAL, a shock on one side can easily spread to the other.
Critics note that evaluator agents could become a few gatekeepers, and that spreading across chains can fragment liquidity and users. Rules for tokenized AI agents are still unsettled in most countries, and smart-contract bugs or hacks are a risk, as with any DeFi project.
Written from information public up to October 2026. It does not recommend or rate any coin and is not investment advice. If something is wrong, please tell us through the contact page.