AI Drives Demand for Digital Assets, Says BlackRock Research

BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, has released research suggesting that artificial intelligence (AI) could drive demand for digital assets. According to the report, 'The Machine-Native Economy', AI adoption could increase the need for blockchains and other programmable payment infrastructure.

The authors of the report argue that existing payment rails can support some degree of automation but are not well-suited for high-frequency, sub-cent machine-to-machine transactions. Stablecoins, native cryptocurrencies, and tokenized real-world assets are seen as more suitable for these types of transactions.

BlackRock also sees an opportunity for digital assets in the growing market for compute - the processing power needed to train and run AI systems. Claims on this capacity could be represented as tokens to be transferred, pledged as collateral or traded.