{"id":13634,"date":"2026-09-23T20:55:55","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T20:55:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cryptonews.uk.com\/?p=13634"},"modified":"2026-09-23T20:55:55","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T20:55:55","slug":"blackrock-sees-a-new-5-trillion-ai-trade-emerging-for-stablecoins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cryptonews.uk.com\/?p=13634","title":{"rendered":"BlackRock sees a new $5 trillion AI trade emerging for stablecoins"},"content":{"rendered":"

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BlackRock says AI could create a new class of stablecoin customer: machines that spend continuously without human approval.<\/p>\n

The world\u2019s largest asset manager sees increasingly autonomous AI systems purchasing data, accessing software, and acquiring computing resources on their own, potentially adding a new source of transaction demand to digital assets beyond trading and human payments.<\/p>\n

That prospect sits at the center of BlackRock\u2019s new report, The Machine-Native Economy<\/em>, which argues that artificial intelligence could eventually change who initiates economic activity. Instead of people making individual payment decisions, software could execute thousands of small transactions to complete a task.<\/p>\n

Stablecoins enter that market with more than $300 billion already in circulation and about $11.2 trillion of adjusted transaction volume in 2025, according to BlackRock. The firm calculated that volume grew at an 80% compound annual rate between 2020 and 2025, compared with roughly 8.5% for the US Automated Clearing House (ACH) network.<\/p>\n

ACH still processed about $93 trillion last year, reflecting how far stablecoins remain from the largest traditional payment rails. BlackRock also cautioned against directly comparing stablecoin activity with Visa and Mastercard because the networks measure transactions differently.<\/p>\n

The potentially bigger shift, however, is in transaction behavior rather than existing volume.<\/p>\n

An AI agent searching for information or computing capacity could pay repeatedly for individual API calls, data feeds, or units of processing power. Those transactions may be worth fractions of a cent and occur around the clock, creating a payment pattern markedly different from card purchases or bank transfers designed primarily around human customers.<\/p>\n

That gives stablecoins an opening because software can hold them in programmable wallets and settle transactions without requiring a person to approve each payment.<\/p>\n

Stablecoins may win the machine wallet before blockchains win the economics<\/h2>\n

Payment companies are already competing over how those transactions will move.<\/p>\n

Coinbase\u2019s x402 protocol uses the web\u2019s HTTP 402 \u201cPayment Required\u201d status to let a service demand payment before returning data or another resource. An agent can request an API, receive payment instructions, transfer USDC, and get the service without a human completing checkout.<\/p>\n

Stripe and Tempo are developing the Machine Payments Protocol, which can settle transactions through stablecoins or traditional payment methods. Stripe and OpenAI\u2019s Agentic Commerce Protocol connect AI agents with existing merchant systems, while Google and Visa are working on separate standards around agent identity and authorization.<\/p>\n

The competing approaches complicate any assumption that machine commerce will automatically migrate on-chain.<\/p>\n

Traditional payment networks can adapt to autonomous software, particularly where agents transact with established businesses and consumers. Stablecoins appear better positioned where payments become especially small, frequent, or native to software.<\/p>\n

That leaves a second contest over where the value from those payments eventually accrues.<\/p>\n

If agents generate more stablecoin transactions on Ethereum, greater usage could increase demand for blockspace and validator services. ETH is used in the network\u2019s fee and staking system, providing one route through which higher transaction activity can affect the native asset.<\/p>\n