Animoca Brands chairman Yat Siu has made a surprising U-turn on the metaverse. At Consensus Miami 2026, he declared that the blockchain-based virtual world was never meant for humans. Instead, he argues it served as a prototype for autonomous AI agents, which will become blockchain’s core users.
Siu admitted that the pandemic-era vision was a mistake. The belief that people would permanently shift their lives into virtual environments was fueled by lockdowns, but reality proved otherwise. Now, he says, the focus must shift from human-centric metaverses to agent-based economies.
According to Siu, blockchain technology is ideally suited for machines, not people. He predicts 50 to 100 billion AI agents will eventually operate online, vastly outnumbering humans. These agents can transact autonomously on-chain without the friction that hampers mainstream crypto adoption. Currently, less than 70 million people actively use blockchain apps due to complexity, but AI agents bypass these barriers entirely.
Animoca Brands is already pivoting. The firm announced a $10 million investment initiative via its Animoca Minds platform to fund developers building AI agent applications. This marks a significant shift from its earlier metaverse-focused strategy.
Siu’s remarks signal a clean break from the past, positioning AI agents as the next frontier for blockchain scalability and real-world utility.