Fidelity Warns of Six Risks to Crypto's AI Agent Thesis
Fidelity Digital Assets has identified six risks that could weaken the investment case for artificial intelligence (AI) agents using public blockchains.
The report, published by senior research analyst Max Wadington on August 19, highlights potential challenges to the crypto AI thesis. One risk is that closed technology and fintech platforms may offer AI agents better performance, costs, distribution, and compliance certainty than public blockchains.
Another concern is that payments could increase blockchain activity while directing more economic value toward stablecoin issuers and services. This could lead to limited fee revenue for native blockchain tokens.
Fidelity found that trading produced 49 times more Ethereum base layer revenue per dollar of volume than payments during the previous 180 days. The report suggests that stronger economic potential lies in agents managing capital, such as automated trading, lending, borrowing, and liquidity provision.