BlackRock predicts AI agents will drive new demand for crypto

BlackRock’s Digital Assets Research team released a paper titled “The Machine‑Native Economy,” arguing that autonomous AI agents will soon need to pay for data, compute and other services without human involvement. The firm sees stablecoins as the most suitable medium for these sub‑cent, 24/7 machine‑to‑machine payments.

Why stablecoins, not banks?

Traditional payment rails require human‑linked accounts and incur fees that make tiny, frequent transactions uneconomical. Stablecoins, pegged to fiat currencies, can settle instantly, operate around the clock, and avoid the overhead of card‑network fees, making them a natural fit for autonomous agents.

Emerging infrastructure

Existing protocols such as Coinbase’s x402 allow software to pay for an API call within the same request, eliminating the need for a human‑approved account. Amazon, Google and other cloud providers have integrated stablecoin payments into their AI tools, enabling agents to purchase data feeds or compute capacity on the fly.

Current usage is modest

Blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs examined $52.7 million of x402 settlements this year and estimated that AI agents accounted for roughly 0.6 % to 7.5 % of that volume. Most activity still appears to be automated scripts rather than fully autonomous agents.

Future outlook

BlackRock projects stablecoin transaction volume to reach $11 trillion in 2025, comparable to the annual volumes of major card networks, and notes a circulating stablecoin market cap above $300 billion as of September 2026. The firm expects demand for “tokenized claims on computing power” – standardized contracts for cloud capacity – to grow as AI agents begin paying for resources directly.

Implications for crypto markets

If AI agents adopt stablecoins for routine payments, the resulting machine‑native demand could add a new layer of usage to blockchain networks, potentially increasing transaction volumes and supporting the development of programmable settlement infrastructure.