idol

Key Insights
MEET48 positions itself as an early leader in AI user-generated content (AIUGC) entertainment, combining generative AI, virtual idol creation, and onchain participation into a unified fan-driven ecosystem.MEET48 enables users to create and train AI-powered virtual idols using PARO AI, a proprietary LLM-based agent framework trained on real-world data from idol performances and fan interactions.The $IDOL token serves as the core economic engine by supporting voting, fan participation, virtual asset purchases, and burn-driven value capture.In MEET48’s 2025 annual idol competition, over 1.6% of the supply was bought to vote on idols. With 0.45% of the total IDOL supply being burned.MEET48 is built by a team with deep experience in $IDOL operations and social gaming. The leadership team previously scaled SNH48, a popular Chinese Idol group, and operated Audition, one of China’s most successful rhythm-based social games.
Introduction
The creator economy has expanded rapidly over the past decade, yet its underlying economic structure has remained largely unchanged. While billions of users generated videos, music, characters, and digital culture, value continued to flow primarily toward centralized platforms. Creators supplied engagement and content, but platforms retained ownership, controlled distribution, and captured the majority of economic upside.
MEET48 emerged as a response to this structural gap. Positioned at the intersection of generative AI and crypto, the platform reimagines how entertainment content is created, distributed, and monetized. Rather than funneling value upward to a centralized operator, MEET48 introduces a multi-sided system where users can create AI-generated virtual idols, influence their development, and participate directly in tokenized fan economies. In this model, creativity becomes collaborative, and ownership becomes programmable.
Background
MEET48 was founded by a group of individuals that includes Kai Xu, Jason Liao, and Lin I-Ming. With Jason and Kai being entertainment industry veterans with extensive experience operating SNH48, one of Asia’s largest idol franchises. Lin has a background in crypto, working with CRYPTOC. Through SNH48, the team accumulated more than a decade of experience across idol management, live performance operations, fan engagement, and digital content monetization. At its peak, SNH48 supported over 10 million fans and operated five dedicated theaters across five cities, producing live performances over a ten-year period.
This operational history produced proprietary data that underpins MEET48’s AI strategy. Recorded live performances, archived VR viewing content, thousands of licensed music tracks, and idol–fan interaction data collected through the Pocket48 application were used to train PARO AI, MEET48’s in-house large language model (LLM).
In 2024, the team launched MEET48.ai, a system designed to support character creation, performance sequencing, and AIUGC workflows. Development coincided with the launch of the MEET48 app on BNB Chain, which introduced tokenized voting events and onchain fan engagement. On June 11, 2025, MEET48 launched the IDOL token across Binance Alpha, Bitget, Gate.io, MEXC, Kucoin, and PancakeSwap.
Technology

MEET48’s architecture combines AI-generated content systems, tokenized asset infrastructure, and distribution layers for user engagement. The platform supports the full lifecycle of virtual idol creation, including design, training, performance generation, fan interaction, and onchain value capture. It can be broken down into three primary layers: the creation layer, the experience layer, and the economic layer.
Creation Layer

MEET48.ai
The creation layer serves as the entry point into the MEET48 ecosystem. It centers on MEET48.ai, a platform designed to act as the central hub for AI-powered content creation. Meet48.ai is the platform for sharing, showcasing, and creating AI content. Within MEET48.ai is the PARO AI, which functions as the core creative toolkit, enabling users to build virtual idols from scratch. Users can define an idol’s physical appearance, vocal characteristics, fashion style, performance attributes, and personality parameters. They are also able to create different songs, dances, videos, comics, and podcasts of their idols.
The creation layer is designed for both professional creators and fans. MEET48.ai lowers creative barriers by enabling users of all skill levels to generate high-quality AIUGC. These creations can later be surfaced across the ecosystem and can also be converted into Virtual World Assets (VWAs), which can then be sold and bought on the MEET48 marketplace on the BNB chain.
Experience Layer
The experience layer represents the environments where AI-generated idols become socially and economically active. This layer centers on the MEET48 app, which functions as the primary engagement hub for fans and creators. It hosts social feeds, chat rooms, idol profiles, live events, auditions, contests, and collaborative spaces that enable users to share content and track the progress of their idols.
A core component of this layer is the onchain voting and ranking system. Fans utilize IDOL to influence the visibility of idols, event placement, and competitive outcomes. Higher-ranked idols gain increased exposure across the platform and eligibility for ecosystem-wide showcases.
Proof of Creativity
Proof of Creativity (PoC) functions as MEET48’s community-driven content validation mechanism. As AI tools reduce the cost of content production, PoC provides a signal for identifying which outputs hold cultural relevance. Fans and creators vote on content and performances across the platform, increasing visibility for high-scoring creations. Content with strong PoC signals gains access to featured placement, competitive events, or advanced tokenization pathways through Mars Protocol.
The experience layer extends into interactive entertainment through applications such as Auditions GO and its third-party games incubated through MEETLabs, including DeFishing. The games act as engagement loops and token sinks, reinforcing participation.
Economic Layer
The economic layer provides the foundation for MEET48’s value creation and value circulation systems. At the core of this layer is the IDOL token. IDOL is used for onchain voting, purchasing virtual goods, unlocking premium interactions, and activating various fan engagement features.
A second pillar of the economic layer is Mars Protocol. Mars Protocol is MEET48’s idol-meme platform designed to support growth-driven token economies around both real and virtual idols. The protocol enables the creation of community-driven tokens whose bonding curves are tied to fan growth and engagement rather than isolated speculative demand.
Mars-issued tokens do not represent ownership of individual content assets. Instead, they function as fungible community tokens that reflect collective attention, participation, and cultural momentum around an idol. By anchoring token expansion to fan-driven growth signals and ongoing content activity, Mars Protocol is designed to extend token lifecycles beyond short-term speculation and align token dynamics with sustained community development.
The economic layer also includes VWAs, which represent tokenized forms of performances, scenes, in-game items, and other user-generated creations. VWAs originate from the creation layer and become economically active once they enter the marketplace. They allow creators and fans to establish ownership over digital content and participate in secondary markets.
Tokenomics
MEET48’s governance token, IDOL, serves the core purpose of fueling the MEET48 ecosystem. Most features in the ecosystem require IDOL to participate in, whether that is creating your idol or content surrounding your idol, or even voting for your favourite idol in the awards show. IDOL has a total of 4.8 billion tokens, and they are distributed as follows:

Community (36.2%): 1.74 billion IDOL is subject to a six-month cliff, followed by linear vesting over 48 months.Ecosystem (20.0%): 960.0 million IDOL unlocked in phases. 96.0 million tokens are unlocked at TGE, with the remaining supply vesting linearly over 48 months, starting after month six.Airdrop (9.0%): 432.0 million IDOL fully unlocked at TGE.Marketing (5.8%): 278.4 million IDOL fully unlocked at TGE.Strategic Funding (4.0%): 192.0 million IDOL is subject to a 12-month cliff, followed by linear vesting over 24 months.Private Funding (3.0%): 144.0 million IDOL is subject to a 12-month cliff, followed by linear vesting over a 24-month period.Liquidity (3.0%): 144.0 million IDOL fully unlocked at TGE.IDO (2.00%): 96.0 million IDOL fully unlocked at TGE.Advisors (2.00%): 96.0 million IDOL is subject to a 12-month cliff, followed by linear vesting over 48 months.

Users spend IDOL to access key platform functions, including creating avatars or idols and unlocking participation across MEET48’s products. Once onboarded, users engage through the MEET48 app and through additional experiences such as Auditions GO. Users can also choose to participate in the annual auditions and ceremonies by voting with their IDOL token to determine the winners of the annual audition. The winnings come from the community pool of tokens. Once the winner is chosen, they receive a portion of this pool, while another portion is burned, and the remaining portion is allocated to the community pool, which can be used in the next round when another competition is held.
Ecosystem
The MEET48 ecosystem comprises a growing network of applications, creator tools, and token-driven environments that form a unified entertainment universe. The MEET48 app serves as the central hub for social engagement, voting, and community interaction. Auditions GO, and other interactive titles extend idol participation into gameplay contexts, while Mars Protocol enables token-driven community formation.
MEET48 App

The central hub of the ecosystem is the MEET48 social app. The app hosts social feeds, chat rooms, idol profiles, live events, and collaborative spaces that allow users to share UGC and follow the progression of AI-powered idols. This app also contains the onchain voting system, seasonal ranking events, and community activities that drive cultural momentum across the platform. It is designed to function as the social layer for the MEET48 universe.
Auditions GO
The ecosystem extends into interactive entertainment through Auditions GO, a rhythm-based game where virtual idols perform user-created dances and appear in competitive events. While not yet live, the game will leverage PARO AI. Performances and personalities can be generated by PARO AI, enabling idols to participate in rhythm challenges, score-based systems, and social leaderboards. Auditions GO is currently expected to be released in 2026.
Mars Protocol

Mars Protocol functions as a platform that drives community experiences and develops them into token economies. Fans and creators participate directly in idol-centric meme token ecosystems. Through Mars, users can issue Idol-Meme tokens, engage with bonding curve–based markets, and coordinate around tokens linked to emerging idols and culturally resonant moments.
Unlike permissionless meme launchpads, Mars Protocol incorporates structured discovery and support mechanisms designed to align token activity with longer-term idol development. Token launches may opt into MEET48’s incubation framework, which includes supply locking, platform-backed promotion, and access to AIUGC tools. Community voting plays a central role in determining visibility and traction, with annual events and rankings surfacing high-performing idols and tokens for additional exposure, buyback programs, and liquidity support. Mars Protocol also integrates with MEET48’s broader ecosystem surfaces, including the social app and metaverse environments, where Idol-Meme tokens gain relevance through ongoing content creation, events, and fan interaction.
Annual Idol Competitions
The MEET48 ecosystem includes an annual idol competition that serves as a recurring mechanism for fan participation, content discovery, and token utilization. The event allowed fans to vote for participating idols, both real and virtual, using the IDOL token. Voting outcomes influence rankings, visibility within the platform, and eligibility for subsequent content releases and ecosystem initiatives. As such, the competition functions as a structured signal for fan engagement rather than a purely promotional event. The inaugural competition took place in August 2025, representing MEET48’s first large-scale implementation of token-based voting. During the voting period, fans committed approximately 78.0 million IDOL, equivalent to 1.63% of the total token supply, to support participating idols.
The competition framework accommodates both traditional idols and AI-generated virtual idols under the same voting system. This design places real and virtual performers within a shared competitive environment, allowing fan preferences to be expressed consistently across different idol formats.
Voting tokens are partially removed from circulation through burn mechanisms, while the remaining portion is redirected to community pools for future incentives and ecosystem programs.
MEETLabs

MEETLabs is Meet48’s product for building out their experience layer by incubating projects for the MEET48 ecosystem. The first project incubated by MEETLabs is DeFishing, a play-to-earn (P2E) fishing game. The token operates on three separate tokens: IDOL, GFT, and GSC, with the core function of acting as a token sink for IDOL.
Roadmap

MEET48 2026 Annual Competition
MEET48 plans to hold its annual competition, where users will vote for the top idols and determine who will be crowned the winner. This is an integral part of the MEET48 ecosystem and is crucial to the protocol's functioning. Scheduled for 2026, the competition will offer users a chance to showcase their AI idols and have fans vote on their favourites.
Closing Summary
MEET48 presents a differentiated approach to AI-enabled entertainment by combining virtual idol creation, fan participation, and onchain economic coordination into a single ecosystem. Rather than treating AIUGC, social engagement, and tokenization as separate verticals, the platform integrates them through a layered architecture that aligns creative output, user interaction, and value capture.
At the ecosystem level, MEET48 leverages the IDOL token as a coordination tool. Voting, access, and participation require IDOL, while burn mechanisms and structured vesting schedules introduce deflationary pressures on the IDOL token. Products such as Mars Protocol expand the range of economic functions within the ecosystem, allowing community attention, gameplay activity, and cultural momentum to translate into activity on MEET48.
As the MEET48 platform expands, its ability to build out the new AI creator economy will likely determine whether it can sustain long-term participation beyond the early novelty stage.
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