Artificial intelligence might become one of the primary catalysts for cryptocurrency adoption as independent agents begin acquiring services, transferring funds, and obtaining processing power, as indicated by a BlackRock paper.
The asset management firm suggests that artificial intelligence supplies “machine-native intelligence,” whereas digital assets deliver the settlement and payment framework that programs could require to execute their choices. For instance, an agent executing a process could pay for an information request, reserve a service, or acquire computing power without waiting for a human being to finish it.
Stablecoins are poised to be the initial major beneficiaries. Their relatively dependable worth renders them practical for pricing services, while distributed ledger networks can facilitate transactions continuously around the clock. BlackRock points to the Coinbase x402 protocol as a rising method for agents to disburse funds for online assets, including API requests. It also recognizes that traditional payment networks are adapting to agent-driven commerce.
The study highlights computing capacity as a more distant prospect. As the need for AI processing expands, standardized claims on computational resources could eventually be exchanged, financed, or utilized as collateral via digital asset infrastructure. BlackRock references analyst projections indicating that revenue from the prominent cloud divisions of Amazon, Microsoft, and Google could hit roughly $1.1 trillion by 2030.
BlackRock notes that agent transactions remain at an early phase, and liquid markets for standardized compute agreements have not yet materialized.
Originally published at https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/09/23/ai-agents-will-soon-buy-their-own-computing-power-and-data-using-stablecoins-according-to-blackrock.
