AI Agents Fuel Stablecoin Demand, Computing Power Market Emerges

The world's largest asset manager, BlackRock, has predicted that AI agents will drive demand for stablecoins. In a research paper published in September 2026, BlackRock stated that agentic artificial intelligence could create demand for digital assets by enabling software to make payments without direct human involvement.

Stablecoins are suited to machine-to-machine payments because they can settle transactions around the clock and support small-value payments that can be difficult to process economically through traditional payment networks. The firm estimates that adjusted stablecoin transaction volume exceeded $11 trillion in 2025, while stablecoin market capitalization had risen above $300 billion by September 2026.

BlackRock also pointed to computing power as a potential market for digital assets. As demand for AI infrastructure grows, the firm said standardized claims on computing capacity could eventually be traded, used as collateral, and settled on blockchain networks. The combined revenue from the cloud businesses of Amazon, Microsoft, and Google is estimated to reach about $1.1 trillion by 2030.

The concept of using stablecoins for AI-agent payments is already being tested through payment protocols such as Coinbase's x402. However, BlackRock's broader thesis remains forward-looking, with autonomous agents still accounting for only a small share of observed machine-payment activity.