BlackRock: AI agents may become an important driver of the next round of demand growth in the crypto market

PANews reported on September 23 that according to Decrypt, BlackRock’s digital asset research team released “The Machine-Native Economy” report stating that as AI agents gradually gain the ability to autonomously perform tasks and make payments, AI may become an important driver of future growth in demand for crypto assets. BlackRock believes that AI agents need to make high-frequency and low-amount payments such as API calls, obtaining data, and renting computing power. Traditional bank accounts and bank card networks are not suitable for such scenarios, and stablecoins can provide all-weather, near-instant settlement payment methods. The report also proposed that encapsulating computing power into standardized on-chain contracts may become a new digital asset application scenario, and related assets can be bought and sold, used as collateral or automatically settled.

PANews reported on September 23 that according to Decrypt, BlackRock’s digital asset research team released “The Machine-Native Economy” report stating that as AI agents gradually gain the ability to autonomously perform tasks and make payments, AI may become an important driver of future growth in demand for crypto assets. BlackRock believes that AI agents need to make high-frequency and low-amount payments such as API calls, obtaining data, and renting computing power. Traditional bank accounts and bank card networks are not suitable for such scenarios, and stablecoins can provide all-weather, near-instant settlement payment methods.

The report also proposed that encapsulating computing power into standardized on-chain contracts may become a new digital asset application scenario, and related assets can be bought and sold, used as collateral or automatically settled. BlackRock cited data saying that the adjusted trading volume of stablecoins in 2025 will exceed US$11 trillion, and as of September 2026, the circulating market value of stablecoins will exceed US$300 billion; TRM Labs’ research on this year’s $52.7 million x402 settlement volume shows that AI agents currently only account for about 0.6% to 7.5% of it, but BlackRock believes that as AI agents autonomously complete payments and service procurement, their demand may further promote the development of stablecoins and programmable blockchain infrastructure.