The Rise of AI Agents in Web3: From Experimentation to Mainstream

Since the beginning of 2025, on-chain activities related to AI have experienced explosive growth, with the number of daily active unique wallets surging by 86% to approximately 4.5 million. AI's dominance in the Web3 space has rapidly risen to 19%, second only to gaming applications at 20%. Considering that AI's market share was only 9% at the beginning of the year, this change is particularly significant.

This rapid growth is not merely the result of short-term speculation, but rather reflects a fundamental shift in the way users interact with decentralized applications. Whether in decentralized finance, social media, or gaming, AI agents are becoming a new layer of on-chain interaction. They do not replace users, but rather expand user capabilities, enabling automation, optimization, and representation in interactions.

Data has confirmed this trend: over the past month, AI has dominated discussions in the Web3 space and is likely to define its future direction. This article will explore the evolution of AI agents, application scenarios, the role of tokens, and the scale of capital supporting this transformation.

Key Data

• In June, the dominance of AI on the chain rose from 9% in January to 19%, with trading activity increasing by 86%, and the number of daily active unique wallets reaching 4.5 million.
• As of June 2025, the AI agency project has raised $1.39 billion, a 9.4% increase compared to the total financing for the entire year of 2024.
• Since November 2024, there have been 17,124 agents going live on a certain protocol, with an average of over 85 new additions each day.
• Although the AI token market cap is down 64% from its early June high, it still stands at $5.9 billion and has a 24-hour trading volume of $1.4 billion.
• Europe ( 26.2% ) and Asia ( 21.9% ) are the regions with the highest usage of AI applications, followed by North America ( 15.8% ).

Overview of AI Agents

AI agents are software programs capable of autonomously performing tasks, making decisions, or interacting with users based on objectives, instructions, or real-time data. The Web3 ecosystem is giving rise to crypto-native agents with unique capabilities and roles.

In Web3, AI agents are evolving towards specialization. Some act as on-chain financial agents, executing trades, managing yield strategies, or serving as "portfolio managers." Others are social agents, representing users in decentralized social applications, managing profiles, and even responding to messages and interactions. In the gaming realm, a new class of native game agents has emerged; these AI companions are trained on game backgrounds, mechanics, or player behaviors to serve as helpful guides or even become opponents.

According to data from the tracking agency economic platform, there are currently 1,748 AI agents active in various environments. Since its launch in November 2024, a certain protocol has already deployed over 17,000 agents. The actual number may be even higher, as multiple chains are currently prioritizing the construction of infrastructure for the creation, training, and deployment of AI agents.

AI Proxy Tokens: Utility, Speculation, and Capital

In Web3, most AI agents are not launched individually but come with tokens. The role of these tokens depends on the project's vision and can serve multiple functions. In many cases, they are intended to support community governance, provide access to premium features, or act as a fundraising mechanism for development, especially given that training and maintaining AI agents still requires a significant amount of resources.

For other projects, tokens are merely a capitalization strategy, a way to gain liquidity, reward early adopters, or leverage market momentum. In some cases, they resemble speculative coins dressed in AI garb, issued around vague narratives of agency, lacking technical substance, merely riding the wave of speculative frenzy.

Despite the various noises in the market, the AI agent token market has still made remarkable progress. As of now, the total market value of AI-related tokens has reached $5.9 billion, accounting for 0.18% of the entire crypto market. The daily trading volume in the past 24 hours has also been quite substantial, exceeding $1.4 billion.

However, this trend is not optimistic in recent times. At the beginning of this month, the market value of the AI agent sector was $16.6 billion, which means that the market value of this sector has shrunk by 64% in just a few weeks. This decline reflects broader market conditions, not just attitudes towards AI. But it also indicates the volatility inherent in early-stage sectors, where token speculation often outweighs actual utility.

Top Blockchain Supporting AI Applications

Although AI agents are typically the visible layer used for interacting with users, executing transactions, or providing in-game assistance, their success largely depends on the underlying infrastructure. Blockchains that support high-capacity AI applications are laying the foundation for the deployment, training, and interaction of AI agents.

From January to June 24, 2025, the following blockchains demonstrated the highest activity in AI application usage:

A certain chain dominates with nearly 1.9 million daily active users, indicating that AI infrastructure is thriving driven by social or agent-oriented applications. The other two chains follow closely behind, both exhibiting strong usage rates related to lightweight to gamified AI services.

Although not all of these applications currently deploy agents, their development momentum is evident. With the maturity of AI agent frameworks, these blockchains may usher in the next wave of autonomous agents, whether in decentralized finance, gaming, or social applications.

User Regional Distribution

AI agents may exist on-chain, but their users are distributed globally. Understanding the sources of user participation helps to gain a clearer insight into adoption trends, localization needs, and potential market opportunities.

From January to June 2025, according to traffic data from a certain data platform, Europe is in the lead in interactions related to AI applications, accounting for 26.2%. Following closely is Asia, with a share of 21.9%, and then North America, accounting for 15.8%. South America has a smaller share of 2.5%, but its user base is continuously growing. Interestingly, 33% of the traffic comes from unspecified or hard-to-classify regions.

This global distribution indicates that AI agents are not limited to any one region. Whether it's financial agents managing transactions in Asia, social agents representing users in Europe, or gaming partners interacting with players in North America, the demand shows diversity and is increasingly characterized by cross-continental features.

As the industry matures, it is expected that more localized agency behaviors will emerge, better language modeling will be developed, and even agency personalities with specific regional characteristics will appear. Currently, the competitive landscape is vast, and the race for user attention is global.

Capital Inflows into AI Agents

AI narratives continue to dominate news headlines and funding rounds. Although centralized AI giants have raised billions of dollars, the AI agent economy in Web3 is also starting to attract attention.

By 2025, AI agent projects have raised $1.39 billion, a growth of 9.4% compared to 2024. This indicates that investors are increasingly confident that autonomous on-chain agents could become the next frontier. Although this figure is still far below the investment amount in centralized AI, it is worth noting that the financing in the AI agent sector is now comparable to, or even surpassing, other Web3 segments such as blockchain gaming.

This comparison is significant. Centralized AI investment still dominates, with hundreds of billions of dollars flowing into model development, chips, and infrastructure. However, in the Web3 space, investors are increasingly viewing AI agents as a new "primitive" that can reshape how users interact with protocols, navigate applications, and even automate personal finance strategies.

This momentum is strengthening. If this momentum continues, 2025 could become the year when AI agents attract more funding than any other Web3 vertical.

Conclusion

The rise of AI agents signifies a profound shift in the way users interact with decentralized systems. From financial traders and social partners to game-native assistants, agents are rapidly evolving from experimental robots into infrastructure.

These numbers confirm this statement. Since the end of 2024, more than 17,000 virtual agents have gone live. Even in a sluggish market, the AI token market size has reached $5.9 billion and continues to grow. In just this year, startups focused on agents have raised $1.39 billion. Moreover, user participation is global, showing strong performance in Europe, Asia, and North America.

However, challenges still exist. Many tokens are driven more by speculation than by practicality. Not all agents can fulfill their promises of autonomy. Moreover, cross-chain infrastructure remains uneven. But as tools mature and practical use cases become more widespread, the agent economy is approaching a new baseline, where interaction with on-chain AI is no longer an exception, but the norm.

The competition to create smarter agents, a more powerful ecosystem, and clearer standards has already begun. However, it is still in its infancy.