Every week we are treated to news about new upgrades to agentic AI programs like Anthropic‘s Claude model, or the new products made by Austrian developer Peter Steinberger – OpenClaw – now owned by OpenAI. These products all stem from the traditional Web2 developer sphere. Their constant upgrades have overshadowed similar AI development in the Web3 universe. Within the financial press, blockchain AI startups are non-existent.
“Big Tech dominates today’s AI economy with its centralized infrastructure,”said Jacob Cantele, Co-founder & CEO of CoinFello. Cantele was a key product leader at Consensys, where he oversaw MetaMask, the leading Ethereum wallet. CoinFello is an AI agent platform launched in March.
Blockchain based AI projects exist, of course, but that corner of the Web3 market is much smaller than the overall blockchain/cryptocurrency market.
AI projects in Web3 represent a minority, roughly between 20% to 30%, of the overall money flow into Web3. According to India-based market research firm Market.Us, there were an estimated 17,000 AI agents operating on Web3 platforms by the end of 2025. Autonomous agents now cover 19% of all Web3 activity with billions in daily transaction volume.
The market’s largest AI-linked tokens mostly use blockchains for payments and identity. The strongest current examples are Cortex Labs for direct on-chain inference, and AI infrastructure plays ORA and Ritual. These are available to more sophisticated crypto traders on decentralized exchanges rather than on the big centralized ones like Kraken.
For crypto traders who like the AI theme, Bittensor (CRYPTO: TAO) may be a way to play it without getting too focused. Bittensor powers open-source, collective AI as a Web3 alternative to the centralized giants and can still be considered part of the AI/blockchain story. Investors who bought Bittensor in 2023 and held …