Animoca Brands chairman Yat Siu told Consensus Miami 2026 that the metaverse is over as a consumer destination, and that 100 billion AI agents will become blockchain’s primary users.
Summary
- Yat Siu said the pandemic-era vision of humans living in virtual worlds was wrong, and that the metaverse was a proof of concept for AI agent infrastructure rather than a consumer product.
- He predicted 50 to 100 billion AI agents will eventually operate on the internet, outnumbering humans and transacting autonomously on blockchain networks.
- Animoca announced a $10 million investment initiative for developers building AI agent applications through its Animoca Minds platform.
Animoca Brands chairman Yat Siu told Consensus Miami 2026 on Thursday that the metaverse, as the crypto industry imagined it during the pandemic, was never really built for humans.
“Where we’re landing is that the metaverse, the blockchain-based one, was really the proof of concept for agents,” he said. “In other words, it was never really destined for humans as a prime consumer.”
The remarks mark a clean break from Animoca’s earlier positioning. The firm was among the most prominent advocates of the pandemic-era metaverse vision, which assumed users would spend growing amounts of their social and economic lives in immersive virtual environments.
Siu attributed that misconception to the distorting conditions of COVID lockdowns, when it seemed remote digital life would become permanent. “Everyone thought, ‘Oh, we’re going to be at home, and we’re never going to travel as much anymore,’” he said. “Which, of course, turned out to be quite the opposite.”
What comes next: the agent economy
Siu’s new thesis is that blockchain’s most scalable user base will not be humans but autonomous AI agents. “I think the point is that it’s going to be more agents than humans,” he said, estimating 50 to 100 billion agents could eventually operate on the internet.
On current population math, 10 to 20 agents per human produces between 70 and 140 billion agents globally. “Blockchain technology is the ideal financial system for machines,” Siu said. “We, the humans, were basically the guinea pigs.”
The argument centres on a practical problem that has limited crypto’s reach. Approximately 700 to 800 million people globally own some form of cryptocurrency, but as crypto.news reported, fewer than 70 million actively use blockchain applications, largely because the technology remains too complex for mainstream consumers. AI agents do not face that barrier.
They interact directly through code, require no traditional banking infrastructure, and can transact autonomously on-chain. As part of the pivot, Animoca announced a $10 million initiative for developers building AI agent applications through its Animoca Minds platform, framing agents as its next major investment category after the metaverse era closes.
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