The Rise of AI Agents in the Web3 Space: From Hype to Substantive Development

Since the beginning of 2025, AI-related on-chain activities have shown explosive growth, with the number of daily active unique wallets reaching approximately 4.5 million, an increase of 86% from the beginning of the year. AI's dominant position in the Web3 ecosystem has reached 19%, second only to gaming at 20%. This significant change reflects a structural shift in the way users interact with decentralized applications.

AI agents are becoming the new on-chain interaction layer, covering multiple fields such as DeFi, social interactions, and gaming. They do not replace users but rather enhance user capabilities by automating, optimizing, and representing users in interactions. This trend is likely to define the next phase of development for Web3.

Key Data

• The dominance of AI on the blockchain in June rose from 9% in January to 19%.
• As of June 2025, the AI agent project has raised $1.39 billion in funding.
• Since November 2024, there have been 17,124 agents launched on a certain protocol.
• The market capitalization of AI tokens has decreased by 64% from its peak, but it still reaches 5.9 billion dollars.
• Europe (26.2%) and Asia (21.9%) are the regions with the highest usage of AI dApps.

Definition and Development of AI Agents

AI agents are software programs that can autonomously perform tasks, make decisions, or interact with users. In the Web3 ecosystem, AI agents are developing towards specialization, including:

• DeFi Agency: Execute trades, manage yield strategies
• Social Agent: Represents users in decentralized social applications
• Game Agent: Acts as a game guide or opponent

According to statistics from a certain data platform, there are currently 1,748 AI agents active in various environments. The actual number may be higher, as multiple blockchains are prioritizing the construction of AI agent-related infrastructure.

The Role and Market Performance of AI Agent Tokens

Most AI agent projects come with token issuance. These tokens may be used for community governance, providing access to premium features, or as a fundraising mechanism for development. However, some tokens are more like speculative assets disguised as AI.

Despite market fluctuations, the total market capitalization of AI-related tokens has reached $5.9 billion, accounting for 0.18% of the entire cryptocurrency market. Recently, the market capitalization has dropped by 64% from $16.6 billion at the beginning of the month, reflecting the high volatility of this emerging sector.

Major Blockchains Supporting AI dApps

In the first half of 2025, the following blockchains performed most actively in terms of AI dApp usage rate:

1. Matchain: Nearly 1.9 million daily active users
2. opBNB
3. Nebula

These networks are laying the infrastructure for the next wave of AI agents.

User Regional Distribution

The user distribution of AI-related dApps shows a trend of globalization:

• Europe: 26.2%
• Asia: 21.9%
• North America: 15.8%
• South America: 2.5%
• Other/Unspecified: 33%

This distribution indicates that the demand for AI agents is diverse and cross-regional.

Capital Flow

As of 2025, AI agent projects have raised $1.39 billion, representing a 9.4% increase compared to 2024. Although this figure is lower than the funding scale of centralized AI giants, it is on par with other Web3 subfields. Investors are increasingly viewing AI agents as a new "primitive" that could reshape the way users interact with protocols.

Summary

AI agents are profoundly changing the way users interact with decentralized systems. From DeFi to social to gaming, AI agents are evolving from experimental projects to infrastructure. Despite challenges such as token speculation and technological implementation, as tools mature and practical use cases become widespread, interaction with on-chain AI may become the norm in the future.

The competition to create smarter agents, more powerful ecosystems, and clearer standards has already begun. This field is still in its infancy, and future developments are worth looking forward to.