$BNB Chain has surpassed Ethereum as the blockchain hosting the largest number of AI agents operating under the ERC-8004 standard, according to data from Agentscan and 8004scan.
Of the total 89,451 registered ERC-8004 AI agents, 34,278 are currently active $BNB Smart Chain (BSC), the $BNB The chain ecosystem’s EVM-compatible blockchain network, per 8004scan. Base is the second largest network by number of agents, with 16,549, followed by Ethereum Mainnet with just over 14,000.
ERC-8004 agents per chain. Source: 8004scan
Data from Agentscan shows that BSC leads the way with 39,000 agents, and Base and Ethereum are close to between 28,000 and 30,000 agents on the chain using the ERC-8004 standard.
The on-chain AI agent industry has experienced explosive growth in recent months $BNB Chain agents in particular have exploded this month. According to a March 1
According to data from 8004scan, the number of agents using ERC-8004 in blockchain networks has grown from 337 to almost 130,000 since the beginning of the year – an increase of more than 39,000%.
Total number of chain agents, January 2026-present. Source: 8004scan
The ERC-8004 standard, launched earlier this year by the Ethereum Foundation, defines how AI agents register on-chain identities, manage wallets, and interact autonomously with smart contracts, acting as an immutable ID or profile for agents that can operate on any chain that supports the standard.
More agents, more activity in the chain
Last month, the number of officers increased further $BNB The chain grew, as did the number of agent transactions. Looking at the daily transaction volume associated with ERC-8004 agents on BSC, the daily number of transactions since early February peaked at nearly 523,000 transactions on March 10, according to data from Dune Analytics.
Agent-driven trading volume on decentralized exchanges $BNB Chain since February also hit a daily high of over $18.1 million yesterday, March 11.
Daily DEX volumes for BSC ERC-8004 agents. Source: Dune
The Defiant was unable to verify on-chain activity data, such as DEX volumes, for ERC-8004 agents in other blockchain networks.
Why $BNB Chain?
Nina Rong, Executive Director of Growth at $BNB Chain refers to the foundations of the infrastructure to explain why agents have proliferated in that ecosystem in particular.
“Most blockchains are designed with human users in mind,” she told The Defiant. “It doesn’t work for autonomous agents that operate at machine speed and perform thousands of interactions per day.” Rong pointed to low fees and faster settlement on BSC making microtransactions economically viable, but she argued that identity capabilities in the ecosystem are the deeper driver.
Through ERC-8004, agents are given a portable, decentralized identity. $BNB Chain developed a second layer for the standard, called BAP-578. This layer works as a reputation standard built on the ERC-721 NFT format, giving each agent a verifiable, tradable track record on the chain – something Rong describes as unique to $BNB Chain.
“When you put all that together – the speed, the economics, the identity layer, the reputation infrastructure – $BNB Chain is not only compatible with the autonomous agent economy. It was designed for that,” Rong told The Defiant.
The bigger picture: what agents actually spend
The agentic economy is still in its infancy and even its measurement is disputed. As a16z crypto partner Noah Levine noted in an
According to Levine, most economic activity centers on developer tools: web scraping, browser sessions, image generation, billed per search with no account required.
Google recently unveiled its Agent Payments Protocol (AP2), which uses the x402 standard, in partnership with 60 companies – including EigenCloud, Coinbase, the Ethereum Foundation and MetaMask.
Security remains an open question
Commenting on The Defiant: $BNB Chain’s Rong acknowledged that it is still early days and that there are risks associated with the activities of agents on the chain.
“Agents still have a long way to go in security,” she said, comparing the current moment to the early stages of any rapid-scale technology. Rong added that $BNB Chain is working with security experts on tools including OpenClaw skill scanners and wallet key management standards.
The challenge is already being addressed at the infrastructure level. As The Defiant reported yesterday, AI agent platform CoinFello has released an open-source OpenClaw skill that allows agents to transact on-chain via MetaMask without ever gaining access to a user’s private keys. This addresses what the company describes as a core vulnerability in most current agent wallet designs, which typically store private keys or API data in plain text.
This article was written using AI workflows. All of our stories are curated, edited, and fact-checked by a human.