Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson predicts that autonomous artificial intelligence agents will surpass human beings as the primary holders of cryptocurrency within the next decade.
The former Ethereum co-founder, who famously pivoted to build a peer-reviewed, research-driven blockchain network, argues that the global industry is misjudging its future demographic.
Hoskinson asserts that humans will eventually become a mere “rounding error” in the very financial ecosystems they designed. Because these autonomous digital entities operate continuously without physical limitations, sleep deprivation, or market biases, their dominance is expected to transform decentralized tokenomics from the ground up.
AI agents are self-directed software programs equipped with machine learning capabilities that allow them to perform complex tasks, make decisions, and achieve specific objectives without human intervention. By analyzing vast streams of real-time market data, this software can independently browse the crypto market and manage assets based on pre-programmed parameters.
Digital tokens are the only viable medium for machine-to-machine microtransactions. As such, crypto assets provide a borderless, permissionless, and programmable medium for AI software to execute fast data exchanges, pay for computational resources, and manage capital liquidity directly.
 
In his latest interview, Hoskinson expanded on the architectural crisis looming over this machine-driven future. The Cardano founder warned that current blockchain networks are ill-equipped to handle the explosive throughput required for machine-speed transaction volumes. He suggests that new regulatory and security infrastructure must be built first to facilitate safe, large-scale agent operations.
The Cardano creator emphasized that his network’s research-first methodology can meet these computational demands, while also acknowledging the time required for implementation.
Furthermore, Hoskinson highlighted a critical, unresolved on-chain identity problem: the growing challenge of distinguishing human users from artificial intelligence. He criticized the Web3 sector for misunderstanding the intersection of AI and crypto, noting that a single, standardized framework for autonomous cryptographic verification must be established before this AI economy can go from theory to reality.
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