Animoca Brands chairman Yat Siu said at Consensus Miami 2026 that the metaverse, as envisioned during the pandemic-era crypto boom, is effectively over as a consumer destination. Instead, he believes the future of blockchain belongs to autonomous AI agents rather than humans.
Summary
Yat Siu said the original metaverse vision was flawed and ultimately served as a testing ground for AI agent infrastructure rather than a human-focused digital world.
He predicted that between 50 billion and 100 billion AI agents could eventually operate online, far outnumbering human users.
Animoca Brands also announced a $10 million investment initiative aimed at developers building AI agent applications through its Animoca Minds platform.
Speaking during a session at Consensus Miami 2026, Siu argued that the blockchain-based metaverse was never truly designed for people as its primary users.
“Where we’re landing is that the metaverse, the blockchain-based one, was really the proof of concept for agents,” he said, adding that it “was never really destined for humans as a prime consumer.”
The comments represent a significant shift for Animoca Brands, which was previously one of the strongest supporters of the metaverse narrative during the COVID-19 period. At the time, many in the crypto and tech industries believed people would increasingly live, socialize, and work inside immersive virtual environments.
According to Siu, those assumptions were heavily influenced by pandemic lockdowns and temporary changes in human behavior. He explained that many people believed remote lifestyles would become permanent, but reality evolved in the opposite direction as travel and real-world interaction returned strongly after the pandemic.
The rise of the AI agent economy
Instead of focusing on human adoption, Yat Siu now believes blockchain’s largest user base will eventually consist of autonomous AI agents capable of transacting and interacting independently online.
“I think the point is that it’s going to be more agents than humans,” he said, estimating that between 50 billion and 100 billion AI agents could eventually exist across the internet.
Using global population estimates, Siu suggested there could ultimately be around 10 to 20 AI agents operating on behalf of every human being, potentially creating well over 100 billion machine-driven participants online.
He argued that blockchain technology is uniquely suited for this future because it allows machines to transact autonomously without relying on traditional banking systems or manual human input. According to Siu, humans effectively served as early test users for blockchain infrastructure before machines became the dominant participants.
The theory also addresses one of crypto’s biggest adoption challenges. While hundreds of millions of people globally own some form of cryptocurrency, far fewer actively use blockchain applications due to technical complexity and usability issues. AI agents, however, do not face those barriers because they interact directly through software and code.
As part of its strategic pivot, Animoca Brands announced a new $10 million investment program supporting developers building AI agent applications through its Animoca Minds platform, signaling that AI-powered autonomous systems may become the company’s next major focus after the decline of metaverse hype.
