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Crypto industry sees AI-driven agent economy as next growth driver

Experts gather in Hong Kong for Web3 Festival as firm predicts AI agents could facilitate up to US$5 trillion in global crypto sales by 2030

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Experts gathered at the Web3 Festival in Hong Kong predict AI agents will lead the next leap in global finance with crypto, while how we interact with blockchain is likely to change indefinitely. Photo: AFP/Getty/TNS
Yeon Woo Lee
As cryptocurrency converges with traditional finance, driving industry growth and mainstream adoption, officials at Hong Kong’s Web3 Festival are anticipating the next leap: the emergence of artificial intelligence agents.
They say AI agents – which perceive their environment, make decisions and act autonomously around the clock – will need tools to unlock their full economic potential, which crypto can provide through its ability to transfer funds instantly across borders without permission.

“How we interact with blockchain will probably change indefinitely,” Lennix Lai, chief commercial officer at OKX Global, told the conference.

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Fan Wenzhong, an executive director of the China Society for Finance and Banking, forecast the arrival of a so-called “decentralised agent economy”, but said AI’s potential remained under a “glass cover”.

Global management consulting firm McKinsey estimates that by 2030, AI agents could facilitate between US$3 trillion and US$5 trillion in worldwide consumer commerce, even under moderate scenarios.
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However, Fan said current financial rails were not well suited to such agents, meaning they cannot easily access banking systems or execute payments independently at scale.

“Web3 provides deterministic rules, eliminating the need for authoritative intermediaries, and can operate automatically,” he added.

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