BlackRock Sees AI as Catalyst for Digital Asset Adoption

BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, believes that artificial intelligence (AI) could drive an underappreciated source of demand for digital assets. According to its research paper 'The Machine-Native Economy', AI adoption could increase demand for blockchains and programmable payment infrastructure, including stablecoins and other on-chain assets.

The rise of agentic AI could require machine-native payment instruments that are well-suited to high-frequency, sub-cent transactions, which stablecoins like USDC are likely to lead. Stablecoins, native cryptocurrencies, and tokenized real-world assets can support agentic commerce, but stablecoins may be the best suited for transactional use.

BlackRock also sees an opportunity for digital assets in the growing market for compute, or processing power needed to train and run AI systems. Claims on that capacity could be represented as tokens to be transferred, pledged as collateral, or traded, potentially broadening institutional investor participation and establishing compute as a new opportunity for the broader digital asset ecosystem.

This relationship between AI and digital assets is not new to the crypto industry, but BlackRock's research could bring it to a broader audience of institutional investors. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has also argued that AI agents will need programmable money rather than traditional banking rails, making crypto more important in this context.