The Rise of Virtuals Protocol and Co-Ownership of AI Agents

AI agents are having a big moment! Bitwise just published their top 10 predictions for 2025 and #5 on was “Tokens launched by AI agents will spearhead a memecoin mania even bigger than in 2024” so it only makes sense that we ought to get ahead of this market trend by digging into one of the leading platforms for launching tokenized AI agents called Virtuals.

In the newest The Edge Podcast, we unpack why co-ownership of AI agents have taken the crypto markets by storm. Joined by the CoFounder of Virtuals (everythingempty), we discuss the massive addressable market for tokenized AI agents, what is the Virtuals Fair Launch platform, why they focus so much on recruiting top AI talent, how AI talent can monetize their research with Virtuals, and what's the role of the VIRTUAL token in this groundbreaking new ecosystem.

Thanks to our sponsors for making it possible to produce and share all this content for free. We’re proud to have each of them onboard so please be sure to check them out!

♦️ REDSTONE ORACLES | THE FASTEST GROWING ORACLE FOR DEFI

📈 iYIELD | YOUR FINANCIAL PICTURE, SIMPLIFIED

🧪 MANTLE | START YOUR RESTAKING JOURNEY TODAY WITH CMETH

🐡 PUFFER UNIFI | A BASED ROLLUP TO ETHEREUM WITH BUILT-IN NATIVE YIELDS

🌔 MOONWELL | THE LEADING LENDING AND BORROWING APP ON BASE

Listen to every episode of The Edge Podcast on Pods, Apple, Spotify, and more by subscribing to your preferred podcast player here!

Timestamps

0:00 - Intro

4:44 - Origin of Virtuals Protocol

11:16 - What is Virtuals?

14:20 - How Virtuals works?

17:16 - How measure demand for AI agent

19:32 - Recruiting reputable AI talent to launch on Virtuals

23:31 - The Virtuals Fair Launch Platform

27:14 - Mantle mid-roll

27:55 - Why Virtuals has developed in-house IP

33:22 - Does Luna A/B test strategies and how do agents learn?

35:03 - Do agents have an edge with better AI researchers?

38:37 - VIRTUAL token utility

41:14 - Pricing the total addressable market for Virtual

46:44 - Why Virtual focuses on early access to quality AI builders

49:23 - The power of permissionlessness

52:29 - What’s aixbt and why does it such a hit on CT?

54:25 - Closing and what’s next

🔗 Guest Links 🔗

► Virtuals Website: https://virtuals.io/

► Virtuals on X/Twitter: https://x.com/virtuals_io

► everythingempty on X/Twitter: https://x.com/everythingempt0

► aixbt on X/Twitter: https://x.com/aixbt_agent

► Luna on X/Twitter: https://x.com/luna_virtuals

• Follow @DeFi_Dad on X (Twitter)

• Follow @Nomaticcap on X (Twitter)

• Subscribe to The Edge Podcast via Linktree

• Watch The Edge Podcast on YouTube

• Collect every episode onchain on Pods

Disclosure: As CoFounder of Virtuals Protocol, Weekee (everythingempty) is a large holder of VIRTUAL. Nomatic also holds a position in VIRTUAL, AIXBT, and LUNA.