AI Agents Seen Fueling Next Wave of Stablecoin Demand
BlackRock's Digital Assets Research team has published a paper titled 'The Machine-Native Economy,' which argues that artificial intelligence (AI) agents could drive the next demand wave for cryptocurrency. The report suggests that as AI systems become more autonomous, they will need to pay for goods and services themselves, leading to increased demand for stablecoins.
Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies pegged to a stable asset like the U.S. dollar, designed to hold a steady price instead of swinging like Bitcoin. They can move around the clock, settle almost instantly, and don't need a bank teller.
The report cites analyst estimates that combined 2030 revenue for Amazon, Microsoft, and Google's cloud divisions will be roughly $1.1 trillion, with running AI being expensive and demand for cloud computing capacity climbing. BlackRock envisions 'compute' packaged into standardized contracts, similar to how oil or wheat futures work today, that could be bought, sold, used as collateral, or settled automatically on a blockchain.
The firm's figures put stablecoins' circulating market cap above $300 billion as of September 2026, with more than $11 trillion in adjusted transaction volume moved in 2025 alone. BlackRock's bet is that AI agents will drive the next leg of growth for stablecoin demand as autonomous systems begin paying their own bills.