BSC recently became the largest network of registered AI agents using the ERC-8004 standard, while on-chain agent activity in the ecosystem is also increasing.
BNB Chain has overtaken Ethereum as the blockchain hosting the most AI agents running under the ERC-8004 standard, according to data from Agentscan and 8004scan.
Out of a total of 89,451 registered ERC-8004 AI agents, there are currently 34,278 on BNB Smart Chain (BSC), the EVM-enabled blockchain network of the BNB Chain ecosystem, per 8004scan. Base is the second largest network in terms of number of agents, with 16,549, followed by the Ethereum mainnet with just over 14,000.
Agentscan data shows that BSC leads with 39,000 agents, and Base and Ethereum are almost tied at 28,000 to 30,000 on-chain agents using the ERC-8004 standard.
The on-chain AI agent sector has seen explosive growth in recent months, and BNB on-chain agents in particular have surged this month. According to a March 1 X article citing Agentscan data, at the time, BSC had just 6.6k agents, while Ethereum led with 29k.
According to data from 8004scan, since the beginning of the year, the number of agents using ERC-8004 on blockchain networks has increased from 337 to almost 130,000, an increase of more than 39,000%.
The ERC-8004 standard, launched by the Ethereum Foundation earlier this year, defines how AI agents register on-chain identities, manage wallets, and autonomously interact with smart contracts, functioning as an immutable identifier or profile for agents that can operate on any chain that supports the standard.
More agents, more on-chain activity
Last month, as the number of agents on BNB Chain increased, so did the number of agent transactions. Looking at the daily transaction volume related to ERC-8004 agents on BSC since the beginning of February, the number of daily transactions just reached a high of nearly 523,000 transactions on March 10, according to data from Dune Analytics.
Agent-driven trading volume on decentralized exchanges on BNB Chain since February also reached a daily high of over $18.1 million yesterday, March 11.
The Defiant was unable to verify on-chain activity data, such as DEX volumes, for ERC-8004 agents on other blockchain networks.
Why the BNB channel?
Nina Rong, Executive Director of Growth at BNB Chain, highlights infrastructure fundamentals to explain why agents have proliferated in this particular ecosystem.
“Most blockchains were designed with human users in mind,” she told The Defiant. “This doesn’t work for autonomous agents operating at machine speed, executing thousands of interactions per day.” Rong highlighted the low fees and faster settlement on BSC, making microtransactions economically viable. But she argued that the on-chain identity capabilities enabled by the ecosystem are the deeper driver.
With ERC-8004, agents gain a portable, decentralized identity. However, BNB Chain has developed a second layer for the standard, dubbed BAP-578. This layer functions as a reputation standard built on the ERC-721 NFT format, giving each agent a verifiable and tradable on-chain history – something Rong describes as unique to BNB Chain.
“When you put it all together – the speed, the economics, the identity layer, the reputation infrastructure – BNB Chain is not only compatible with the autonomous agent economy. It is designed for that,” Rong told The Defiant.
Overview: What Agents Really Spend
The agentic economy is still nascent, and even its measurement is contested. As a16z crypto partner Noah Levine noted in an article
According to Levine, most agent economics focus on developer tools: web scraping, browser sessions, image generation, billed per request with no accounts required.
Google recently unveiled its Agent Payments Protocol (AP2), which used the x402 standard, in collaboration with 60 companies, including EigenCloud, Coinbase, the Ethereum Foundation and MetaMask.
Security remains an open question
In comments on The Defiant, BNB Chain’s Rong acknowledged that it is still early days and that the on-chain agent business carries risks.
“Agents still have a long way to go when it comes to security,” she said, likening the current moment to the early stages of any rapidly evolving technology. Rong added that BNB Chain is working with security experts on tools including scanners for OpenClaw skills and standards for wallet key management.
The challenge has already been met at the infrastructure level. As The Defiant reported yesterday, AI agent platform CoinFello released an open source OpenClaw skill allowing agents to execute on-chain transactions through MetaMask without ever accessing a user’s private keys – addressing what the company describes as a fundamental vulnerability in most current agent wallet designs, where private keys or API credentials are typically stored in plain text.
This article was written with the help of AI workflows. All of our stories are curated, edited and fact-checked by a human.
