BlackRock Says AI Agents Could Drive the Next Wave of Crypto Adoption

BlackRock published a paper arguing that artificial intelligence could be one of the biggest drivers of digital asset adoption as autonomous agents begin buying services, moving money and sourcing computing power, according to a BlackRock paper.

The asset manager frames AI as providing "machine-native intelligence" while digital assets provide the payment and settlement infrastructure agents need to act on those decisions.

Stablecoins first

Stablecoins are the first major beneficiary, BlackRock argues. Their relatively stable value makes them useful for pricing services, and blockchain networks can support payments around the clock.

In a use case the paper describes, an AI agent carrying out a task could pay for a data request, book a service or purchase computing capacity without waiting for a person to complete. That is the nearer-term opportunity BlackRock sees for digital assets.

BlackRock highlights Coinbase's x402 protocol as one emerging way for agents to pay for online resources, including API calls. The protocol is not described in detail in the CoinDesk summary, which does not say whether x402 is built on the HTTP 402 standard, a Coinbase product, or both. The asset manager also acknowledges that existing payments networks are adapting to agentic commerce, alongside the crypto rails.

Compute is the longer-term bet

For computing capacity, BlackRock sees a second opportunity further out. As demand for AI processing grows, standardized claims on computing capacity could eventually be traded, financed or used as collateral through digital asset infrastructure.

To size the opportunity, BlackRock cites analyst estimates that combined revenue from the major cloud businesses of Amazon, Microsoft and Google could reach about $1.1 trillion by 2030.

BlackRock warns that agent payments remain at an early stage, and liquid markets for standardized compute contracts have yet to develop. Tokenized claims on computing capacity could be traded or used as collateral, but the underlying contracts and the liquidity to trade them are not yet there.