Tackling Virtuals Revenue Misinformation

Throughout this lifecycle, the protocol charges a 1% trading fee on all transactions. Any fees collected while tokens remain in the bonding phase constitute the platform’s net revenue, whereas once tokens graduate, that fee is redirected to the tokens’ creators as a means of offsetting the costs of running and maintaining these sentient agents. Accordingly, net revenue refers to only the subset of trading fees that accrue to the platform, while gross revenue includes both platform fees and creator fees. 

The popular Dune query that widely reported more than $50 million in Virtuals revenue did so by taking the total net revenue collected in VIRTUAL tokens and multiplying it by the current token price, rather than by the token’s value at the time each revenue payment was received. This error significantly overstated Virtuals’ performance, as correct calculations place total revenue closer to $25 million. 

Still, momentum remains relatively strong: net revenue recently reached $2.3 million in a single week, projecting an annualized run rate of $120 million. The Blockworks Research team is set to launch a full Virtuals dashboard on the platform to address these inaccuracies.