CoinDesk
Animoca Brands chairman Yat Siu told attendees at Consensus Miami 2026 that the next phase of the metaverse will be driven by fleets of AI agents transacting across blockchain networks rather than humans navigating immersive virtual worlds. He predicted 50 to 100 billion autonomous AI agents could eventually roam the internet, handling bookings, payments, scheduling, and online commerce on behalf of users while blockchains serve as their financial and identity layer.
The framing marks a sharp pivot from the pandemic-era metaverse thesis Animoca once championed. "Blockchain technology is the ideal financial system for machines," Siu said. "We, the humans, were basically the guinea pigs."
Why it matters
Siu used the keynote to argue that crypto's user-onboarding problem may solve itself once agents — not humans — become the dominant on-chain actors. While an estimated 700 million to 800 million people globally now hold some form of cryptocurrency, fewer than 70 million actively use blockchain applications, a gap Siu attributes to wallets and DeFi remaining technically intimidating for mainstream consumers ("My mom's not going to be using MetaMask").
AI agents sidestep that friction because they operate directly through code, interact natively with smart contracts, and don't need traditional banking rails to transact. In Siu's framework, wallets, tokens, decentralized identity, and on-chain payments become machine infrastructure powering an emerging agent economy — and crypto's most scalable users may ultimately be autonomous software rather than people.
Market impact
Animoca backed the thesis with capital, announcing a $10 million investment initiative through its Animoca Minds platform to fund developers building AI agent applications. The capital is small relative to Animoca's broader portfolio, but the directional signal is the story: one of crypto's most vocal metaverse advocates is formally reorienting the thesis from headset-bound virtual worlds toward agent-to-agent commerce.
Frequently asked questions
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What did Yat Siu say about the metaverse at Consensus Miami 2026?
Animoca Brands chairman Yat Siu argued that the metaverse's next phase will be driven by AI agents transacting across blockchains rather than humans in immersive virtual worlds, predicting 50 to 100 billion autonomous agents could eventually roam the internet.
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How could AI agents solve crypto's user-onboarding problem?
Siu noted that while 700M–800M people hold some form of crypto, fewer than 70M actively use blockchain apps because wallets and DeFi remain technically intimidating. AI agents bypass that friction by operating directly through code and interacting natively with smart contracts.
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What is the Animoca Minds initiative?
Animoca announced a $10 million investment initiative through its Animoca Minds platform to fund developers building AI agent applications, backing the thesis that agent-to-agent commerce is the next wave of blockchain adoption.
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Why does Siu think blockchain is ideal for AI agents?
Siu said blockchain functions as the ideal financial system for machines because agents can transact autonomously on-chain without traditional banking infrastructure, using wallets, tokens, and decentralized identity as machine-native rails.
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How does this change Animoca's earlier metaverse thesis?
The new framing marks a pivot from the pandemic-era vision of users spending time in immersive virtual worlds toward AI systems operating continuously in the background of everyday life, with blockchain connecting those agents rather than anchoring human social activity.
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