The Near Foundation has unveiled a $20 million fund to accelerate the growth of autonomous AI agents on its blockchain.
It marks a significant step in converging artificial intelligence (AI) and decentralized technology. Nevertheless, some remain skeptical about AI agents, with the sector’s market capitalization also revealing a concerning trend.
Near Foundation to Advance AI Agents with $20 Million Fund
Only weeks after announcing the expansion of the Near Protocol AI agent ecosystem, the foundation committed to deploying a $20 million AI agent fund on-chain over the next few months. It would go toward supporting agent tokens that introduce novel AI-driven use cases. These include AI-powered gaming, market-making, and permissionless oracles.
Near Foundation highlighted its vision to establish AI agents as a transformative force in commerce and business. It focuses on AI-driven agent tokenization, agent-curated order flow, fully on-chain gaming, financial entertainment, and market-maker agents.
“The Foundation is looking to invest in agent tokens that push the boundaries of the onchain agentic design space beyond the basic social poster agents,” an excerpt in the blog read.
Beyond financial incentives, Near’s AI Agent Fund will complement other initiatives, such as the Horizon AI accelerator and AI hackathons. This would encourage the next generation of developers to push the AI and Web3 integration boundaries.
Despite this news, however, Near Protocol’s powering token is down by over 3% since Friday’s session opened. BeInCrypto data shows NEAR was trading for $3.22 as of this writing.
NEAR Price Performance. Source: BeInCrypto
Nevertheless, the announcement comes after AI agents made headlines in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2024. CoinGecko highlighted them among the dominant trends in the past year. In the same tone, OKX Ventures says the hype around AI agents could continue in Web3 in 2025.
“As AI agents reshape the DeFi landscape, developing robust security and governance frameworks becomes critical to harness their potential while safeguarding market integrity. Emphasis should be placed on developing robust cybersecurity defenses… to combat manipulation and ensure fairness,” OKX Ventures’ Partner Jeff Ren told BeInCrypto.
Traditional finance giants like Franklin Templeton have also weighed in. As BeInCrypto reported, the asset manager forecasted a surge in AI-driven automation, fueling an increased investment in AI-related tokens. Additionally, Multicoin Capital has predicted the emergence of zero-employee companies and “alpha hunters.”
Beyond the crypto sector, AI agents are also making waves in the broader tech industry. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has projected that AI agents will become a multi-trillion-dollar industry. He said they would transform automation and digital interactions at an unprecedented scale.
Similarly, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has suggested that AI agents are poised to take over many traditional jobs.
“We believe that, in 2025, we may see the first AI agents join the workforce and materially change the output of companies. We continue to believe that iteratively putting great tools in the hands of people leads to great, broadly distributed outcomes,” Altman shared in a blog.
These perspectives suggest a common belief in the potential of AI agents to reshape the global economy.
Despite these bullish predictions, the AI agent market has faced recent headwinds despite a surge in project counts. Data indicates that AI agent-related cryptocurrencies have struggled, with their market cap experiencing a notable decline. Similarly, smart engagement, which determines whether a project is short-term hype or can sustain interest, is declining.
AI Agents Market Cap vs Smart Engagement. Source: cookie.fun
BeInCrypto also reported a 15% drop in AI agent tokens, raising concerns about investor sentiment and the pace of adoption. The slowdown in AI agent project launches further mirrors these challenges. This indicates that while the long-term vision for AI agents remains strong, short-term market conditions remain volatile.
Another point of contention is the skepticism of some key industry players. A recent survey revealed that most Solana founders are concerned about AI agents. This highlights a divide within the blockchain community regarding the role of AI in decentralized ecosystems.
