AI Adoption Could Boost Demand for Digital Assets, BlackRock Says

BlackRock has made waves in the crypto space by publishing a research paper that suggests artificial intelligence (AI) could drive demand for digital assets. According to the report, titled 'The Machine-Native Economy,' AI adoption, particularly agentic, machine-to-machine activity, could act as a structural catalyst for blockchain-based infrastructure.

The paper argues that stablecoins are likely to lead transactional use in high-frequency, low-value machine-to-machine payments. Additionally, BlackRock sees an emerging opportunity for tokenized access to AI compute, potentially used for transfer, pledging, and collateral.

In the report, BlackRock notes that existing payment rails have a 'practicality gap' when it comes to automation tasks that require authorization, credentialing, or fast finality. This friction could be amplified when transactions happen continuously without human involvement.