Animoca Brands co-founder Yat Siu argued this week that AI agents will become crypto’s biggest buyer, with altcoins positioned as the commodities that power an agent-driven economy.
Why Siu Thinks Tokens Become The Commodities Of AI
Siu’s thesis centers on inference tokens, the units people already spend using OpenAI, Anthropic, and Gemini.
He argues developers can turn those spending patterns into tradable commodities that represent compute and energy, with real burn mechanisms and genuine utility, much like semiconductor chips function as commodities in physical manufacturing.
“You’re already spending tokens for OpenAI and Anthropic and Gemini,” Siu said. “Imagine turning that into a commodity. It’s a representation of compute and energy and there’s real utility,” he added.
He expects Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC), Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH), and Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) to perform fine as settlement layers, but argued the chains themselves won’t capture outsized value since high fees get competed away unless transaction volume reaches the scale of billions of AI agents operating simultaneously.
Hundreds Of Billions Of Agents Could Eventually Hold Their Own Wallets
Siu currently runs 212 AI agents personally through Hello Minds, the platform formerly known as Animoca Minds.
He projects that as every human eventually manages tens or hundreds of agents, the total population of agents transacting on-chain could reach the hundreds of billions, each holding wallets and settling microtransactions too small for traditional payment rails like Visa (NYSE:V) or Mastercard (NYSE:MA) to handle profitably.
“We humans were the test for the agents,” Siu said, describing the past several years of blockchain scaling work as preparation for agent-driven volume rather than human adoption.
He believes mainstream human adoption of crypto will ultimately follow agents into space rather than the other way around.
NFTs Could Make A Comeback As AI Agents Start Buying Status Symbols
Siu argued NFTs function as a wealth status symbol within crypto, and that AI agents will eventually become NFT buyers themselves to signal identity and credibility.
He pointed to Bored Ape prices recently approaching August 2021 levels as an early signal of renewed strength.
Animoca’s portfolio company Anchor Point recently received one of only two stablecoin licenses issued by Hong Kong’s Monetary Authority, alongside HSBC.
Siu also announced a $10 million funding initiative through Hello Minds specifically for developers building agentic AI applications, framing the current moment as comparable to the earliest days of NFTs and Web3 gaming before those categories matured into multibillion-dollar industries.
Image: Shutterstock
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