Web3 companies turn to hardware with crypto-powered phones, consoles

Web3 companies are exploring ways to determination beyond apps and tokens, experimenting with hardware devices similar phones and consoles that merge crypto functions with mundane tech.

Gaia Labs, a decentralized AI and Web3 infrastructure company, connected Tuesday announced its upcoming AI smartphone for users successful South Korea and Hong Kong. Built connected Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Edge hardware, the instrumentality runs AI models straight connected the phone, letting users interact with agents without relying connected unreality services.

According to the company, Web3 functions see onchain individuality support, a pre-loaded Gaia domain, and tools for deploying customized AI agents.

Gaia joins a tiny radical of blockchain ventures experimenting with carnal devices. Over the past fewer years, respective projects person tried fusing blockchain with mobile devices.

Solana Mobile, a subsidiary of Solana Labs, released successful August its second-generation device, the Solana Seeker, claiming implicit 150,000 pre-orders and shipping to more than 50 countries.

The company's archetypal mobile device, the Saga phone, was launched successful 2023, featuring a built-in Seed Vault and Solana DApp store tied to the BONK tokens memecoin airdrop.

Web3 entrants aren’t needfully trying to regenerate large tech giants successful the smartphone industry, specified arsenic Apple and Samsung. In a blog post tracing the improvement from the Saga to the Seeker, Emmett Hollyer, wide manager of Solana Mobile, said their extremity is to make “something wholly new: a mobile ecosystem that puts crypto users and developers first.”

Pioneers successful the abstraction see Taiwanese electronics shaper HTC. In October 2018, it announced the pre-sale the Exodus 1, a blockchain-powered Android instrumentality featuring a built-in hardware wallet (“Zion Vault”) and enactment for aggregate blockchains, including Bitcoin and Ethereum.

In 2022, luxury marque Vertu launched the Metavertu, a smartphone with a dual Web2/Web3 platform, crypto wallet features, and NFT support.

“The occurrence metric isn't marketplace share, it's proving that decentralized alternatives to Big Tech AI monopolies are technically and economically viable,” Shashank Sripada, co-founder of Gaia, told Cointelegraph.

Related: Investors people ‘fun-first’ crypto games arsenic backing jumps 94% successful July 

Web3 Gaming consoles successful 2025

Alongside phones, teams down large blockchains person besides experimented with handheld gaming devices.

In precocious 2024, Mysten Labs, the squad down the Sui blockchain, unveiled the SuiPlay0X1, built with Playtron. The console combines afloat PC gaming with autochthonal Web3 features similar zkLogin and onchain plus management.

In August 2025, Solana Mobile announced the Play Solana Gen 1 (PSG1), a portable console that doubles arsenic a hardware wallet.

It includes Solana wallet integration, transaction fingerprint security, and Solana’s DApp ecosystem access. Pre-orders opened successful 2025, with the archetypal units acceptable to vessel successful October.

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