AI Adoption Drives Demand for Stablecoins and Blockchain Payments

BlackRock has argued that the growing adoption of AI will create new demand for stablecoins and blockchain payments. The asset manager believes that autonomous AI systems require financial infrastructure built for machines, and blockchains could provide a way to pay for computing resources used by those systems.

In a recent paper published on September 22, BlackRock described AI as 'machine-native intelligence' and digital assets as 'machine-native money.' The firm identified three areas of overlap between the technologies: tokenization, agentic commerce, and computing capacity.

Tokenization involves translating information into standardized formats that machines can handle. Agentic commerce refers to the ability of AI agents to make financial transactions, which could increase demand for programmable payment infrastructure and stablecoins as settlement instruments.