BlackRock Predicts AI Agents Could Be Major Crypto Demand Driver

According to research referenced by BlackRock, artificial intelligence and digital assets are starting to merge, with AI models demonstrating a preference for bitcoin and stablecoins.

The $15 trillion asset manager stated in a fresh report that card networks and automated clearing houses require human onboarding, impose fees that make micropayments uneconomical, and result in slower settlement and finality.

Titled "The Machine-Native Economy," the report posits that the next major driver of crypto demand will be software rather than human investors. BlackRock argues that as AI agents independently book travel, purchase data, and rent computing power, they will require payment systems that operate continuously and can process transactions involving fractions of a cent.

“These findings … point to a potential AI-native monetary architecture in which stablecoins serve as transactional money and bitcoin as a store of value.”

The report stated: “As AI agents become more capable and as their real-world applications expand, they increasingly demand payment and asset infrastructure designed natively for machine-speed commerce.”

“Crypto-native blockchain rails are particularly well suited to high-frequency, sub-cent, machine-to-machine transactions that take place around-the-clock, including API calls, on-demand data, and consumption based compute.”

The report added that research by the Bitcoin Policy Institute found that “controlled simulations generally favored stablecoins for everyday payments and bitcoin for long-term value preservation.”

“As AI adoption broadens and agentic systems become more capable, digital assets could become increasingly integral to AI’s economic infrastructure, expanding utility across stablecoins, tokenized RWAs, and native cryptoassets that support blockchain settlement,” the report noted.

BlackRock has consistently commended Bitcoin and other crypto applications that leverage its technology, such as asset tokenization.

BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust received approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2024. Since then, it has drawn the highest investment and trading volume among all U.S. bitcoin ETFs. The fund achieved the most successful launch in ETF history and currently oversees more than $67 billion in assets.

BlackRock has earlier stated that Bitcoin constitutes a unique asset class and that investors purchase it as a hedge against possible debt crises.