In-depth Exploration of AI Agents: Evolution, Applications, 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 the dominance of AI to 19%, second only to gaming at 20%. Considering that 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 game assistants, AI agents are becoming the new layer of on-chain interaction. They do not replace users but rather expand user capabilities, enabling automation, optimization, and representation in interactions.

Data confirms this statement: AI has dominated the discussion of Web3 over the past month and is likely to 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 dominance of AI on the blockchain rose from 9% in January to 19%, with trading activity increasing by 86%, and the number of daily active unique wallets reaching 4.5 million.

As of June 2025, the AI agent project has raised $1.39 billion, an increase of 9.4% compared to the total financing amount for the entire year of 2024.

Since November 2024, there have been 17,124 agents launched on the Virtuals Protocol, with an average of more than 85 new agents added daily.

Although the market value of AI tokens has decreased by 64% from the peak in early June, it still stands at 5.9 billion USD, with a 24-hour trading volume of 1.4 billion USD.

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 an AI agent?

AI agents are autonomous software programs capable of executing tasks, making decisions, or interacting 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 are social agents that represent users in decentralized social applications, managing profiles, and even responding to messages and interactions. In the gaming sector, a new type of native game agent has emerged; these AI companions are trained through game backgrounds, game mechanics, or player behaviors to serve as helpful guides or even become opponents.

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

The agency economy is taking shape and developing rapidly.

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

In Web3, most AI agents are not released 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 advanced features, or act as a fundraising mechanism for development, particularly when training and maintaining AI agents still requires a significant amount of resources.

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

Despite the many noises in the market, the AI agent token market has still made remarkable progress. As of the time of writing, the total market capitalization of AI-related tokens has reached $5.9 billion, 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.

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 market value of this sector has shrunk by 64% in just a few weeks. This decline reflects a broader market condition, rather than 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?

Top blockchain empowering AI dapps

Although AI agents are often the 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.

From January to June 24, 2025, the following blockchains were the most active 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 at present, their development momentum is evident. As the AI agent framework matures, these blockchains may usher in the next wave of autonomous agents, whether in DeFi, gaming, or social applications.

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

4 Where do users come 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 a clearer insight into adoption trends, localization needs, and potential market opportunities.

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

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

As the industry matures, more localized agency behavior, better language modeling, and even agency personalities with specific regional characteristics are expected to emerge. Currently, the competitive landscape is very broad, and the race for user attention is global.

5 funds flowing into AI agents

AI narratives continue to dominate news headlines and funding rounds. Despite centralized AI giants like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Mistral raising billions in funding, the AI agent economy in Web3 is also starting to attract attention.

By 2025, AI agent projects have raised $1.39 billion, a 9.4% increase compared to 2024. This indicates that investors are increasingly confident that autonomous on-chain agents could become the next frontier. Although this figure is still far lower than the investment in centralized AI, it is worth noting that the funding in the AI agent sector is now comparable to or even surpasses other Web3 segments such as blockchain gaming.

This contrast is significant. Centralized AI investments still dominate, with hundreds of 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 strengthening. If this momentum continues, 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 native game assistants, agents are rapidly evolving from experimental bots into infrastructure.

These numbers confirm this statement. Since the end of 2024, more than 17,000 virtual agents have gone online. Even in a sluggish market, the AI token market size has reached $5.9 billion and continues to grow. Just this year, startups focused 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 fulfill their promises of autonomy. Additionally, cross-chain infrastructure remains uneven. But with the maturation of tools and the proliferation of real use cases, the agent economy is approaching a new baseline where interaction with on-chain AI is no longer an 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.