Web3 companies turn to hardware with crypto-powered phones, consoles
Web3 firms are exploring methods to maneuver past apps and tokens, experimenting with {hardware} gadgets like telephones and consoles that merge crypto capabilities with on a regular basis tech.
Gaia Labs, a decentralized AI and Web3 infrastructure firm, on Tuesday introduced its upcoming AI smartphone for customers in South Korea and Hong Kong. Constructed on Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Edge {hardware}, the system runs AI fashions immediately on the telephone, letting customers work together with brokers with out counting on cloud companies.
In accordance with the corporate, Web3 capabilities embrace onchain identification help, a pre-loaded Gaia area, and instruments for deploying customized AI brokers.
Gaia joins a small group of blockchain ventures experimenting with bodily gadgets. Over the previous few years, a number of initiatives have tried fusing blockchain with cell gadgets.
Solana Cellular, a subsidiary of Solana Labs, launched in August its second-generation system, the Solana Seeker, claiming over 150,000 pre-orders and delivery to greater than 50 nations.
The corporate’s first cell system, the Saga telephone, was launched in 2023, that includes a built-in Seed Vault and Solana DApp retailer tied to the BONK tokens memecoin airdrop.
Web3 entrants aren’t essentially attempting to interchange huge tech giants within the smartphone business, equivalent to Apple and Samsung. In a weblog publish tracing the evolution from the Saga to the Seeker, Emmett Hollyer, basic supervisor of Solana Cellular, mentioned their purpose is to create “one thing solely new: a cell ecosystem that places crypto customers and builders first.”
Pioneers within the area embrace Taiwanese electronics maker HTC. In October 2018, it introduced the pre-sale the Exodus 1, a blockchain-powered Android system that includes a built-in {hardware} pockets (“Zion Vault”) and help for a number of blockchains, together with Bitcoin and Ethereum.
In 2022, luxurious model Vertu launched the Metavertu, a smartphone with a twin Web2/Web3 platform, crypto pockets options, and NFT help.
“The success metric is not market share, it is proving that decentralized alternate options to Huge Tech AI monopolies are technically and economically viable,” Shashank Sripada, co-founder of Gaia, advised Cointelegraph.
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Web3 Gaming consoles in 2025
Alongside telephones, groups behind main blockchains have additionally experimented with handheld gaming gadgets.
In late 2024, Mysten Labs, the group behind the Sui blockchain, unveiled the SuiPlay0X1, constructed with Playtron. The console combines full PC gaming with native Web3 options like zkLogin and onchain asset administration.
In August 2025, Solana Cellular introduced the Play Solana Gen 1 (PSG1), a conveyable console that doubles as a {hardware} pockets.
It consists of Solana pockets integration, transaction fingerprint safety, and Solana’s DApp ecosystem entry. Pre-orders opened in 2025, with the primary items set to ship in October.
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