BlackRock says AI agents could drive crypto's next demand wave

BlackRock says artificial intelligence agents could drive crypto's next demand wave. The firm argues that stablecoins are suited to automated payments because they can move continuously and settle quickly without human-controlled bank accounts. BlackRock says adjusted stablecoin transaction volume exceeded $11 trillion in 2025. Traditional ACH transfers handled $93 trillion that year. Stablecoin volume has grown about 80% a year since 2020. ACH volume has grown about 8.5% a year over the same period. BlackRock says agentic AI could increase demand for blockchains and programmable payment infrastructure. Coinbase's x402 protocol lets software pay for data feeds or API calls without an account or human approval. Amazon has added stablecoin payments to AI cloud tools through Coinbase and Stripe. Google has built an agent-payments layer with support from Coinbase and the Ethereum Foundation. TRM Labs examined $52.7 million in x402 settlements this year. TRM Labs found that AI agents likely accounted for between 0.6% and 7.5% of that value. BlackRock says the current usage remains limited and that much of the activity resembled automated scripts. BlackRock cites estimates that Amazon, Microsoft, and Google's cloud divisions could generate about $1.1 trillion in combined revenue in 2030. The firm says standardized contracts for computing capacity could be bought, sold, used as collateral, or settled automatically on a blockchain. BlackRock says stablecoins had a circulating market capitalization above $300 billion as of September 2026.