Stablecoins Poised to Fuel AI Payments, BlackRock Says

BlackRock, a leading investment management firm, has published a research paper arguing that stablecoins will be the primary means of payment for AI agents. According to the paper, compute is becoming a distinct and investable economic resource as AI agents multiply.

The paper states that stablecoins are likely to lead transactional use in agentic commerce, with Ethereum (ETH) and Circle's Arc emerging as settlement venues. ETH has gained over 13% during the past week and posted a seven-month high on Tuesday, while CRCL stock was down over 1% in early morning trade.

BlackRock estimates that cumulative AI capital spending could exceed $5 trillion between 2025 and 2030, with combined revenue from Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft's Intelligent Cloud, and Google Cloud expected to reach about $1.1 trillion by 2030.