According to financial behemoth BlackRock, artificial intelligence might actually boost demand for crypto.
This is a rather unorthodox view, given that many pundits have contributed the most recent crypto due to the rise of AI hogging up all the spotlight.
Why this could happen
AI could be bullish for crypto due to the interaction of autonomous software with financial systems.
AI and crypto are currently in the process of converging despite initially developing as independent sectors, according to a new paper published by the financial behemoth.
They can plan and execute multistep tasks, interact with external services, and even perform financial transactions.
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The firm, which has launched multiple successful cryptocurrency-focused exchange-traded funds (ETFs), views digital assets as “machine-native money.”
AI agents could drive stablecoin demand
Traditional rails like ACH already support substantial automation. However, they are less suitable for extremely small, always-on payments due to onboarding requirements and a slew of factors.
Stablecoins, on the other hand, can be transferred around the clock.
Coinbase’s x402 was specifically mentioned by BlackRock as a promising example. The asset manager also pointed to other novel systems, including Stripe and OpenAI’s Agentic Commerce Protocol, Google’s Agents Payments Protocol and Visa’s Trusted Agent Protocol.
Many of the largest stablecoins operate on public blockchains such as Ethereum, which could benefit from the AI-driven demand boost.
AI compute could become tokenized
BlackRock’s thesis is not solely based on payments. The asset manager also believes the humongous amount of computing capacity required by AI could even lead to the creation of an entirely new class of digital assets.
AI models require enormous quantities of GPUs, and data-center infrastructure is extremely expensive.
BlackRock has predicted the appearance of new markets for standardized claims on future computing capacity. Such contracts could potentially be represented on-chain like established commodity markets.
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