If Meta, Google and other tech giants are spending trillions on AI infrastructure, it means that artificial intelligence is not a temporary phenomenon, but a technology that can change everything. Including replacing you.
On the Virtuals Protocol platform, dozens of AI agents are already operating with a combined capitalization of tens of millions of dollars. They create content, trade, and perform tasks that were previously only available to humans.
This rapid growth explains why the VIRTUAL cryptocurrency is showing excellent results. While many top coins are losing momentum after the drop in mid-October, VIRTUAL/USDT has gained almost 10% since the beginning of the year.
VIRTUAL price dynamics. Source: CoinGecko
Over the past week, the coin has grown by another 6%, confidently bouncing off local lows. The only question: will the upward trend continue?
AI agent stole $500,000
The growth of VIRTUAL continues and already outpaces even top memecoins on Solana. But this success directly depends on how many AI agents are launched on the Virtuals Protocol platform.
However, speed alone is not enough here. Unlike memecoin launchpads like Pump.fun, which focus on mass adoption, the Virtuals ecosystem emphasizes quality. And users are clearly not ready to tolerate fraud.
Until November 25, the entire project essentially operated on the principle of “code is law.” Anyone could launch an AI agent, create a token, and try to grow it to “x’s.” For many, this looked like a chance to find the next 100x asset.
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The Virtuals developers emphasized that the main condition was transparency. Each agent must be verified and keep a decision log on-chain. This was supposed to protect users.
One of the agents called BasisOS, allegedly optimizing returns, turned out to be a typical scam. Users attracted by promises of high returns entrusted it with their funds. In the end, losses amounted to half a million dollars.
As it turned out later, there was a person behind the supposedly automated protocol. BasisOS was not an AI agent at all. Instead of the algorithmic work investors expected, the entire process was manually controlled by an operator.
A person from the internal team, who had access to the protocol wrapper, managed the contract directly. He imitated AI behavior from the moment the agent was launched in early November, remaining unnoticed for almost a month.
Theft as a turning point for Virtuals Protocol?
Despite the serious incident, the Virtuals team decided to compensate the affected users for their losses. One of the co-founders admitted that the project had previously promoted the BasisOS (BIOS) token and therefore takes responsibility for what happened.
This is the first recorded case of fraud by an “AI agent” on the platform. After this, the team began to review the entire security model.
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The result was a large-scale cleanup. All unverified agents were removed from the platform. At the same time, fully transparent and reliable AI programs, whose logs are recorded on-chain, received an influx of trust.
Amid these events, the VIRTUAL token price has risen by almost 20% over the past three days. Since it is at the core of the entire Virtuals Protocol ecosystem, investors are increasingly considering it a reliable alternative, especially amid growing trust in verified AI agents.
The largest tokens in the Virtuals Protocol ecosystem by market capitalization. Source: Coingecko
Growth has also affected other projects. For example, AIXBT, behind the popular agent aixbt, also showed growth. It now ranks second among all AI agents by market capitalization, second only to TIBBIR.
Overall, at the time of publication, the Virtuals Protocol ecosystem has added another 2% and for the first time surpassed $1 billion.
