BlackRock: AI's Pull on Crypto Demand Still Underestimated, Stablecoins May Dominate Agent Payments
In its latest research paper, BlackRock argues that AI adoption could be an underappreciated driver of digital asset demand, with stablecoins best positioned to dominate machine-to-machine transactions.
BlackRock: AI's Pull on Crypto Demand Still Underestimated, Stablecoins May Dominate Agent Payments
In its latest research paper, The Machine-Native Economy, published on September 23, 2026, BlackRock points out that the widespread adoption of AI could become an underappreciated source of demand for digital assets. The paper's authors—Will Su, Robert Mitchnick, Jay Jacobs, and William Helm—argue that the rise of AI agents and machine-to-machine payments will drive up demand for blockchain and programmable payment infrastructure, with stablecoins most likely to dominate transaction scenarios.
The report states that existing payment rails still require human intervention for account opening, credentials, and authorization, while merchant fees make small transactions unviable. In contrast, stablecoins, native cryptocurrencies, and tokenized real-world assets are better suited for round-the-clock, high-frequency, sub-cent machine-to-machine transactions.
BlackRock also suggests that the AI compute market presents another opportunity for digital assets: compute claims can be tokenized, transferred, and traded as collateral, and AI agents can use such markets to automatically procure resources on demand. The authors position AI as a structural catalyst for digital asset adoption and say this relationship remains underappreciated.
Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/ai-potential-to-drive-crypto-demand-remains-underappreciated-blackrock?utm_source=rss_feed&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss_partner_inbound
Provenance & status
- Byline
- OceanAlt Editorial
- First published
- 2026-09-23
- Last updated
- 2026-09-23
- Content type
- Newsflash
- Source material
- View original ↗
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