Animoca Brands co-founder Yat Siu this week dropped a warning that the $900 billion advertising industry is headed for collapse as AI agents take over how people discover products and services. Speaking publicly about the shift, Siu called agentic AI the most important transformation in the internet since blockchain — and his firm is putting real money behind that bet.
Why the ad industry is in the crosshairs
Traditional advertising relies on capturing attention through search engines, social feeds, and display networks. But Siu argues that AI agents — autonomous software that can research, compare, and even transact on a user's behalf — will bypass those channels entirely. Instead of seeing a sponsored post, an agent will evaluate options based on utility, reputation, and price. That cuts the middleman out. The ad industry, he says, doesn't have a fix for that. It's a structural threat, not a cyclical one.
Animoca's $10 million bet on agentic AI
Animoca Brands isn't just talking. The firm has launched a $10 million investment program backing projects building in the agentic AI space. Siu described AI productivity gains as 1,000x — a figure that, if even directionally accurate, would reshape how quickly software replaces human workflows. The investment push is early-stage and broad, targeting infrastructure, consumer-facing agents, and the token models that could power them. It's a signal that Animoca sees this as the next big narrative after crypto gaming and the metaverse.
What Siu told retail investors
For everyday crypto investors trying to figure out where to put money, Siu's advice was direct: build wide baskets now. Don't try to pick a single winning agent or platform. The space is moving too fast, and the eventual winners aren't obvious yet. A diversified approach — across different agent protocols, data layers, and tokenized services — offers better odds than betting on one horse. The warning about the ad industry doubles as a broader thesis: if AI agents replace discovery, the value captured by advertisers shifts to the agents and their underlying networks. Investors who position early at least have a shot at catching that wave.
The question now is whether other crypto firms follow Animoca’s lead. A $10 million program is modest by venture standards, but the sector is still hunting for a clear use case beyond trading and speculation. Agentic AI could be it — or it could be another overhyped fork. Siu has made his call.
