Virtuals Protocol fixes bug but VIRTUAL token falls 8%

Virtuals Protocol, a decentralised network of Artificial Intelligence agents, has fixed a critical bug which, if exploited, would prevent the creation of AgentTokens. 

According to pseudonymous security researcher Jinu, who discovered a bug in the protocol’s audited smart contract after a friend invested in a token on the platform, the vulnerability stemmed from a lack of validation in the internal bond threshold mechanism.

Per the researcher, the vulnerability is simple but can impact the project’s ecosystem.

In comments to crypto media, he noted that the bug, if exploited by an attacker, would prevent AgentTokens from being created, despite the contract having undergone an audit.”

Jinu initially reached out to Virtuals Protocol to report the issue and inquired about a bug bounty program, only to learn that no active program was in place.

After posting about the vulnerability on X and directly contacting the team, the issue was addressed, with Virtuals Protocol applying an immediate fix.

After the issue was resolved, Virtuals Protocol thanked the researcher and announced a bug bounty program in an X post, promising details regarding the program in an upcoming announcement.

The project has also vowed to reward Jinu with a bounty after reviewing “the severity of the issue,” but details on the matter were unknown at publication time.

VIRTUAL price drops

VIRTUAL, the native token for the project, dropped over 8% to hit an intra-day low of $4.12 after reports of the bug surfaced on X.

As of press time, the price has recovered back above $4.3 and mitigated some of the daily losses.

While it remains unclear if the bug was the primary cause of the decline, the project’s X community expressed disappointment over the team’s initial lack of responsiveness when the issue was first reported.

Launched in 2023, Virtuals Protocol aims to become the leading decentralized AI agent network in the crypto industry.

The project launched on Ethereum layer 2 network Base and serves as a co-ownership layer for AI agents, empowering launchpad users to create agents with new tokens or leverage existing ecosystem tokens.

Users can create and manage AI agents, some of which have already achieved multi-billion dollar market caps.

Notable examples include G.A.M.E, with a market cap exceeding $250 million, and Prefrontal Cortex Convo Agent and Luna, each valued at over $50 million and $100 million, respectively.

Meanwhile, the hype around AI agents and VIRTUAL’s listing on several centralised exchanges has helped push its yearly gains to over 34114%, making it the best-performing cryptocurrency among the top 100 tokens.

The altcoin recentely hit an all-time high of $5.07 on January 2.

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