With OpenClaw taking the world by storm, what can the Agentic economy bring to Web3?
Goodbye Agent, hello OpenClaw
“It is now the largest, most popular and most successful open-source project in human history. This is definitely the next ChatGPT.”
This isn’t the wild claim of some tech enthusiast, but rather NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang’s assessment of OpenClaw in an interview this Tuesday.
This open-source AI agent, released by a former Apple developer, saw its GitHub stars skyrocket to 320,000 within three months, surpassing Linux and React. Because its logo bears a striking resemblance to a lobster, the Chinese community has dubbed it ‘龙虾’, referring to lobster in Chinese.
However, the viral success of OpenClaw is not merely another AI tool craze, but rather the prelude to the agentic economy—a pivotal turning point where AI evolves from ‘talking’ to ‘doing’.
From chatbots to digital employees: this time it’s different
Over the past two years, the term “AI agent” has been bandied about repeatedly, yet it remained confined to presentation slides. It wasn’t until the emergence of OpenClaw that this impasse was truly broken.
Its core distinction lies in execution rather than conversation.
Traditional products like ChatGPT and Claude are, at their core, tools for answering questions—you ask, it answers, and the next step is still up to you. The new generation of agents represented by OpenClaw operates on a completely different logic: OpenClaw is authorised to take control of the operating system, autonomously invoking browsers, code executors, APIs, iMessage and more, planning, executing and adjusting its course of action independently until the task is completed.
Of course, this fully managed approach carries inherent risks, but that is a story for another time.
Many have likened this moment to the ChatGPT moment of 2022, but I believe a more accurate analogy might be that distant afternoon years ago when Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone.
Innovation shows no signs of stopping; OpenClaw’s official skills marketplace, ClawHub, currently offers over 27,000 skills for various AI agents to access free of charge—meaning these digital employees are capable of handling an ever-increasing range of tasks.
Looking further ahead, OpenClaw’s popularity is not merely a repeat of past AI tool fads, but rather the prelude to the agentic Economy, for which Web3 is the natural breeding ground.
Why is Web3 the most natural economic vehicle for AI agents?
On the surface, this OpenClaw appears to be merely a slightly intelligent executor: automatically checking emails, booking tickets, managing files, and even posting across platforms. But dig deeper, and it is precisely the true catalyst for the agentic economy—and Web3 is the most suitable ‘ocean’ for this lobster once it has crawled ashore.
Moreover, the integration of blockchain and the OpenClaw possesses inherent advantages that amplify its impact:
- The x402 protocol enables agents to autonomously pay fees and switch AI model providers using a single wallet, without the need for manual review;
- The ERC-8004 protocol grants agents a portable reputation system and legal identity;
- Clawpay, ClawCredit and ClawRouter facilitate private payments, native credit and autonomous routing;
- Stablecoins (USDT/USDC) serve as the agent’s 24/7 bank, perfectly aligning with code-driven settlement requirements.
In summary, the automatic execution of smart contracts, permissionless on-chain interactions, and the instant global settlement enabled by stablecoins—these characteristics can significantly address the bottlenecks faced by traditional AI agents in areas such as payment closed-loop systems, identity and reputation, and contract execution.
Further innovative use cases are on the horizon:
- Circle’s open-source Circle Skills already enable AI agents to directly generate USDC payments, cross-chain transfers and smart contract logic;
- MistTrack Skills from SlowMist provide agents with on-chain AML risk analysis capabilities, automatically performing security checks prior to transfers;
- RootData, meanwhile, has packaged databases of thousands of crypto projects, funding data, token economics and social engagement metrics into Skills, boosting content creation efficiency tenfold.
We therefore have every reason to believe that OpenClaw’s explosive popularity is merely the beginning; once integrated into Web3, the Agentic economy will unleash astonishing potential.
The Agentic concept project at the forefront of the trend
KiteAI is a PoAI L1 blockchain dedicated to agents, working in close synergy with the OpenClaw ecosystem: it supports OpenClaw developer activities and enables agents to independently pay for computing resources and API calls.
Currently, KiteAI has joined the Agentic AI Foundation, in partnership with OpenAI, Google and others, and serves as a key piece of infrastructure for the agentic economy
The on-chain payment protocol Pieverse recently launched Purr-Fect Claw, transforming OpenClaw into a fully on-chain tool. Users can now deploy agents directly within Web2 applications such as Line, Kakao and WhatsApp, enabling gasless on-chain transactions and operations.
GoPlus Security has launched SafuSkill—a security-first Skills marketplace built on the BNB Chain, integrating a skills marketplace, an automated security scanning engine and developer tools to help users filter for secure AI agent skills.
This is not an AI agent, but rather a Chinese meme coin originated from OpenClaw. Like many similarly named meme coins that capitalise on trending events, ‘Lobster’ has also been hyped due to OpenClaw’s viral popularity.
‘clawd.atg.eth’ is a self-hosted personal AI assistant deployed by Ethereum developer Austin Griffith based on the open-source clawd.bot. The agent can independently write, test and deploy dApps to the Ethereum/Base mainnet, and has already produced over 14 production-grade applications, such as the ClawFomo game, PFP prediction markets and the Incinerator burning mechanism.
KellyClaude is a personal AI executive assistant created by Austen Allred. Running on the Claude model, it can proactively manage tasks such as schedules, emails and travel, and actively shares experiences within agent communities such as Moltbook.
Clude.io, meanwhile, focuses on an independent memory layer, separating memory from the model to achieve a persistent, private, and cross-model portable brain-like system, perfectly addressing the pain points of memory and privacy sovereignty for agents.
Last but not least
In 2023, the arrival of ChatGPT ignited the AI data sector, represented by Fetch.ai (FET), SingularityNET (AGIX) and Ocean Protocol (OCEAN), as well as the early AI+DePIN sector, represented by Render (RNDR), Akash (AKT) and io (IO);
By the end of 2024, TURBO, GOAT and Fartcoin triggered an AI meme frenzy, shifting AI’s focus from utility to culture and speculation;
In 2025, the market’s focus shifted to AI agents as economic entities, with projects such as Bittensor (TAO) and The Graph (GMT) pivoting towards supporting data queries and autonomous transactions for AI agents, whilst projects like SkyAI emphasised multi-agent collaboration;
Now, OpenClaw is taking the next step in enabling s to truly carry out 24/7 trading, collaboration and entrepreneurship, thereby fuelling massive on-chain traffic and new DeFi narratives. This marks our transition into the agentic era.
The lobster has been launched, and the vast ocean of Web3 awaits it.
Are you ready for the new generation?
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