In-depth exploration of AI Agents: evolution, applications, the role of tokens, and capital scale

Author: Dappradar

Compiled by: Felix, PANews

Since the beginning of 2025, on-chain activities related to AI have surged by 86%, with the number of daily active unique wallets (dUAW) reaching approximately 4.5 million. This has brought AI's dominance to 19%, just behind gaming at 20%. Considering its market share was only 9% at the beginning of the year, this is a significant change.

This explosive growth is not only driven by speculation; it reflects a structural change in the way users interact with dApps. Whether through DeFi, social agents, or autonomous gaming assistants, AI agents are becoming the new layer of on-chain interaction. They do not replace users but rather expand their capabilities, achieving automation, optimization, and representing users in interactions.

Data confirms this statement: AI has dominated the discussions in Web3 over the past month and will likely define the direction of its next stage of development. This report explores the development history of AI agents, application scenarios, the role of tokens, and the scale of capital supporting this transition.

Key Points

• In June, the on-chain dominance of AI increased from 9% in January to 19%, with trading activity growing by 86%, and the number of daily active unique wallets reaching 4.5 million.
• As of June 2025, AI agent projects have raised 1.39 billion USD, an increase of 9.4% compared to the total financing for the entire year of 2024.
• Since November 2024, there have been 17,124 agents launched on the Virtuals Protocol, with an average of over 85 new agents added each day.
• Although the market value of AI tokens has decreased by 64% from the peak in early June, it still stands at 5.9 billion dollars, with a 24-hour trading volume of 1.4 billion dollars.
• Europe (26.2%) and Asia (21.9%) are the regions with the highest usage of AI dApps, followed by North America (15.8%).

1. What is AI agent?

AI agents are autonomous software programs that can perform tasks, make decisions, or interact with users based on objectives, prompts, or real-time data. Traditional AI agents cover industries such as finance, healthcare, or customer service, while 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 DeFi agents, executing trades, managing yield strategies, or serving as portfolio "managers". Others function as social agents, representing users in decentralized social applications, managing profiles, and even responding to messages and interactions. In the gaming sector, a new class of native game agents has emerged; these AI companions are trained on game backgrounds, game mechanics, or player behaviors, serving as useful guides and even becoming adversaries.

This is not mere theoretical talk. According to data from cookie.fun, which tracks the proxy economy, there are currently 1,748 AI proxies active in various environments. Since its launch in November 2024, the Virtuals Protocol, which allows users to create and deploy their own AI proxies, has already seen over 17,000 proxies go live. The actual numbers may be even higher, as multiple chains are currently prioritizing the construction of infrastructure for AI proxy creation, training, and deployment.

The agency economy is taking shape and developing rapidly.

2. AI Agent Tokens: Utility, Speculation, and Capital

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

For others, tokens are merely a capitalization strategy, a way to gain liquidity, reward early adopters, or take advantage of market momentum. In some cases, they resemble meme coins dressed in AI attire, issued around vague agent narratives, lacking technical substance, merely riding the wave of speculative hype.

Despite the many noises in the market, the AI agent token market has still made remarkable progress. As of the time of writing this article, the total market capitalization of AI-related tokens has reached 5.9 billion dollars, accounting for 0.18% of the entire cryptocurrency market. The daily trading volume in the past 24 hours has also been quite substantial, exceeding 1.4 billion dollars.

However, the recent trend is not optimistic. At the beginning of this month, the market value of the AI agent sector was $16.6 billion, which means that the sector's market value 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.

AI agents will exist for a long time. But what about their tokens?

3. Empowering AI dapp with top blockchain

Although AI agents are typically a 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 dapps are effectively laying the groundwork for the deployment, training, and interaction of AI agents.

Between January 2025 and June 24, 2025, the following blockchains showed the most activity in terms of AI dapp usage:

Matchain dominates with nearly 1.9 million daily active users, indicating that AI infrastructure is thriving driven by social or agent-oriented dapps. opBNB and Nebula follow closely, both showing strong usage rates related to lightweight to gamified AI services.

Although not all of these dapps have deployed agents yet, their development momentum is evident. With the maturity of AI agent frameworks, these blockchains are likely to experience the next wave of autonomous agents, whether in DeFi, gaming, or social applications.

Currently, we may still be in the infrastructure construction stage of the AI agent boom, and these networks are leading this process.

4. Where are the users from?

AI agents may exist on the chain, but their users are spread across the globe. Understanding the sources of user participation helps to gain clearer insights into adoption trends, localization needs, and potential market opportunities.

From January to June 2025, according to Dapprader traffic data, Europe leads in interactions with AI-related dapps, accounting for 26.2%. Following closely is Asia at 21.9%, and North America at 15.8%. South America has a smaller share at 2.5%, but its user base is continuously growing. Interestingly, 33% of the traffic comes from unspecified or difficult-to-classify regions, collectively referred to as "Others."

This global distribution indicates that AI agents are not limited to a specific region. Whether it is DeFi agents managing transactions in Asia, social agents representing users in Europe, or gaming companions interacting with players in North America, the demand shows diversity and increasingly exhibits cross-continental characteristics.

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

5. Capital Inflow AI Agent

AI narratives continue to dominate news headlines and funding rounds. Despite centralized AI giants like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Mistral raising 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, an increase of 9.4% compared to 2024. This indicates that investors are increasingly convinced that autonomous on-chain agents may become the next frontier. Although this figure is still far below the investment amount in centralized AI, it is noteworthy that the funding in the AI agent field is now comparable to or even surpasses that of other Web3 segments, such as blockchain gaming.

This contrast is significant. Centralized AI investment still dominates, with 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 DApps, and even automate personal finance strategies.

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

6. Conclusion

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

These figures corroborate the 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. Just this year, startups focusing on agents have raised $1.39 billion in funding. 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 deliver on their promises of autonomy. Moreover, cross-chain infrastructure remains uneven. But as tools mature and real-world use cases become widespread, the agent economy is approaching a new baseline where interactions with on-chain AI are no longer the 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 early stages.

Related reading: A Deep Dive into AI Agents: Where Do We Go Next After the Hype?