Animoca’s Yat Siu Says AI Agents Are Emerging as Web3’s Core Users, Moves to Secure Infrastructure Lead

Interview with Animoca Brands Co-Founder Yat Siu

AI agent platform 'Animoca Minds'

Building agent infrastructure that combines identity and wallets

Expanding payments through stablecoins and real-world assets

"Animoca Brands’ top priority this year is to grow Animoca Minds into the world’s largest artificial intelligence agent platform. Through that, we aim to drive broader adoption of digital identity and expand AI agent payments and commerce built on blockchain technology."

Yat Siu, co-founder of Web3 investment firm Animoca Brands, made the remarks in a video interview with Bloomingbit on April 30. He outlined how the combination of AI and blockchain could reshape industry structures and speed a shift toward an agent-centered economy.

Building agent creation, wallets and identity together as infrastructure expansion accelerates

Animoca Brands is pursuing two tracks at once in an AI agent-driven economy: building infrastructure and expanding digital identity, Siu said.

"Animoca Brands’ role is fundamentally to build infrastructure for the agent ecosystem," he said. "Through our agent service, Animoca Minds, we designed the platform so anyone can create an agent with just an email address, lowering barriers to entry. Those agents come with crypto wallets and can make payments and execute transactions."

He added that the structure can scale quickly and cost-efficiently even in an environment where the number of agents rises above 100 billion.

Animoca Brands is also developing an identity and reputation framework for both humans and agents through Moca Network, its digital identity-based Web3 ecosystem.

"We are designing a structure that verifies human identity to confirm who owns an agent, and then extends that to an agent’s credentials, reputation and trust," Siu said. "A system that can verify identity and trust is essential if agents are to operate independently."

Infrastructure that integrates agent identity and reputation is still in its early stages, he said, but he expects it to become a core foundation of the agent economy.

Siu also emphasized the role of stablecoins in an AI-and-blockchain environment.

"Stablecoins will become the key payment method for agent-based commerce," he said.

Animoca Brands has secured a Hong Kong stablecoin license through Anchorpoint, a joint venture established with Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Ltd. and HKT. The company is also working with partners in real-world assets, or RWA, to broaden payments for both individual and institutional users, he added.

Web3 ecosystem needs structural shift toward an agent-centered model

Siu said the broader Web3 ecosystem also needs a structural shift in the AI era.

"The Web3 and AI market is still at an early stage, so there is plenty of room to build," he said. "The most important thing for builders now is to design services around how AI agents will use and interact with them. AI agents could eventually become more dominant users than humans."

"Blockchain and token economies are more natural for machines because they operate on cryptography and smart contracts," he said. "The process of expanding the ecosystem into a multi-trillion-dollar market over the past five to seven years was, in many ways, humans serving as a kind of proof of concept for the agent economy."

Billions to as many as 100 billion agents could eventually emerge and make purchases and decisions on behalf of humans, he said. That could make blockchains, which allow fast and cheap transactions, core financial infrastructure.

He said the shift would also affect content consumption and revenue models.

"As the way information is delivered moves from website visits to agent-based interaction, content consumption will shift from an advertising-centered model to an API-based microtransaction structure," he said. "To participate in that environment, services and content overall need to be tokenized."

South Korea’s crypto market has strong potential to expand through DeFi and AI

Siu said South Korea’s market has significant room to grow in decentralized finance, or DeFi.

"South Korea has a very unique market structure," he said. "Centralized exchange trading volume is among the highest in the world, but many investors still view crypto mainly as a speculative or investment asset."

On-chain use remains complex. Globally, about 700 million people use centralized exchanges, while only 40 million to 70 million participate on-chain, or roughly 10%, he said.

That leaves substantial room for growth in South Korea’s DeFi sector.

"AI agents will be able to carry out trades such as token purchases and liquidity deposits on behalf of users even if they do not access on-chain services directly," he said. "They will choose the most efficient route regardless of whether it is through a centralized exchange or DeFi."

If an AI agent-based structure is introduced, on-chain use in South Korea could accelerate quickly, he said.

Kang Min-seung, Bloomingbit reporter minriver@bloomingbit.io