{"id":13664,"date":"2026-09-24T10:11:56","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T10:11:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cryptonews.uk.com\/?p=13664"},"modified":"2026-09-24T10:11:56","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T10:11:56","slug":"blackrock-says-ai-agents-could-accelerate-digital-asset-adoption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cryptonews.uk.com\/?p=13664","title":{"rendered":"BlackRock Says AI Agents Could Accelerate Digital Asset Adoption"},"content":{"rendered":"

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  • BlackRock\u2019s whitepaper \u201cThe Machine-Native Economy\u201d, signed by four executives including head of digital assets Robbie Mitchnick, argues agentic AI will likely increase demand for blockchains and programmable payment rails.<\/span><\/li>\n
  • The paper cites a stablecoin market capitalisation above US$300 billion (AU$426 billion) and adjusted stablecoin volume above US$11 trillion (AU$15.6 trillion) in 2025, per RWA.xyz and Visa\/Allium data.<\/span><\/li>\n
  • BlackRock says the ecosystem \u201cremains nascent\u201d, and TRM Labs estimated on 9 September that likely AI-agent activity makes up 0.6% to 7.5% of genuine commerce settled through the x402 protocol.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

    BlackRock argued in a whitepaper published this month that autonomous AI agents paying for data, services and computing power could become an underappreciated source of demand for digital assets, with stablecoins likely to lead transactional use.<\/p>\n

    The 11-page paper, \u201cThe Machine-Native Economy\u201d, was written by head of digital assets research Will Su, head of digital assets Robbie Mitchnick, U.S. head of equity ETFs Jay Jacobs and head of U.S. iShares product innovation William Helm.\u00a0<\/p>\n

    \u201cAI represents machine-native intelligence, while digital assets represent machine-native money\u201d, the authors wrote.<\/p>\n

    ACH and card networks carry \u201conboarding requirements and settlement economics\u201d that make them less suited to always-on, very low-value transactions, the paper states. By contrast, BlackRock argues that crypto rails are better suited to high-frequency, sub-cent, machine-to-machine (M2M) transactions such as API calls and on-demand compute.\u00a0<\/p>\n

    Read more: Saudi Arabia Exits China-Backed mBridge Digital Currency Project<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Stablecoins Lead the Case<\/h2>\n

    The paper puts stablecoin market capitalisation above US$300 billion (AU$426 billion) as of September, citing RWA.xyz, and adjusted stablecoin transaction volume above US$11 trillion (AU$15.6 trillion) in 2025, citing Visa and Allium data. ACH moved US$93 trillion (AU$132 trillion) last year, the paper says, citing Nacha, and adjusted stablecoin volume grew at an 80% compound annual rate from 2020 to 2025 against about 8.5% for ACH.<\/p>\n

    BlackRock names Coinbase\u2019s x402, Google\u2019s AP2 and Visa\u2019s TAP among the payment standards built for agents, and says wider x402 use on permissionless networks \u201ccould increase demand for blockspace and validator services\u201d, a strain Avalanche Treasury Company CEO Bart Smith flagged last week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

    The paper also argues standardised claims on compute capacity could become a significant digital asset use case for financing and programmable settlement, citing Bloomberg-compiled estimates that hyperscaler cloud revenue could reach about US$1.1 trillion (AU$1.56 trillion) by 2030.<\/p>\n

    Agent Payments Remain Small<\/h2>\n

    BlackRock\u2019s own caveat is that the ecosystem remains nascent, with agentic payment activity and compute-market liquidity still limited.<\/p>\n

    TRM Labs reported on 9 September that about US$52.7 million (AU$74.8 million) has settled across 198.9 million x402 transactions since May 2025, and that likely AI-agent activity made up 0.6% to 7.5% of the US$25.62 million (AU$36.4 million) in x402 commerce it screened.\u00a0<\/p>\n

    x402 had passed 100 million transactions on Base by early June, according to Chainalysis.<\/p>\n

    BlackRock runs the iShares Bitcoin Trust, holding US$67.1 billion (AU$95.3 billion) as of 23 September, and the tokenised BUIDL fund, which RWA.xyz puts at US$2.23 billion (AU$3.17 billion). The paper mentions neither product.\u00a0<\/p>\n

    The firm said in July that tokenisation and stablecoins remain central to its strategy, and Mitchnick said on BlackRock\u2019s The Bid<\/em> podcast in April that AI agents are unlikely to get bank accounts and would instead use a blockchain-based monetary instrument.\u00a0<\/p>\n

    Read more: Bitcoin ETFs Dodge Second Straight Weekly Outflow as $433M Friday Inflow Reverses Loss<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

    AI,Blackrock,Digital Asset#BlackRock #Agents #Accelerate #Digital #Asset #Adoption1790244716<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    BlackRock\u2019s whitepaper \u201cThe Machine-Native Economy\u201d, signed by four executives including head of digital assets Robbie Mitchnick, argues agentic AI will likely increase demand for blockchains and programmable payment rails. The paper cites a stablecoin market capitalisation above US$300 billion (AU$426 billion) and adjusted stablecoin volume above US$11 trillion (AU$15.6 trillion) in 2025, per RWA.xyz and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13665,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[2103,267,1941,309,280,214],"class_list":["post-13664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bitcoin","tag-accelerate","tag-adoption","tag-agents","tag-asset","tag-blackrock","tag-digital"],"yoast_head":"\nBlackRock Says AI Agents Could Accelerate Digital Asset Adoption - Crypto News: Latest Cryptocurrency News and Analysis<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cryptonews.uk.com\/?p=13664\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"BlackRock Says AI Agents Could Accelerate Digital Asset Adoption\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"BlackRock\u2019s whitepaper \u201cThe Machine-Native Economy\u201d, signed by four executives including head of digital assets Robbie Mitchnick, argues agentic AI will likely increase demand for blockchains and programmable payment rails. 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