{"id":661163,"date":"2026-09-23T07:30:39","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T07:30:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crypto-news-flash.com\/?p=1303307"},"modified":"2026-09-23T07:30:39","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T07:30:39","slug":"blackrock-sees-ai-compute-becoming-cryptos-next-major-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/e-bitco.in\/index.php\/2026\/09\/23\/blackrock-sees-ai-compute-becoming-cryptos-next-major-market\/","title":{"rendered":"BlackRock Sees AI Compute Becoming Crypto\u2019s Next Major Market"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"eth-editorial-banner\"> <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"eth-editorial-logo\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crypto-news-flash.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/cnf2-scaled-1-1-1.png\" alt=\"Crypto News Flash\"> <span class=\"eth-editorial-text\">All news is rigorously fact-checked and reviewed by leading blockchain experts and seasoned industry insiders.<\/span> <\/div>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>BlackRock sees AI agents creating demand for stablecoins and programmable payment infrastructure.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Compute could become a new market for tokenized claims, financing and automated settlement.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Payments face fewer technical barriers than tokenized compute, making adoption easier to measure.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blackrock.com\/us\/individual\/literature\/whitepaper\/the-machine-native-economy.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">BlackRock sees artificial intelligence creating<\/a> <\/strong>a new source of demand for digital assets as autonomous software begins buying computing power, data and services without human intervention. In its research paper The Machine-Native Economy, the asset manager identifies compute as a potential new digital-asset market, supported by a cloud industry whose annual revenue could exceed $1 trillion by 2030.<\/p>\n<p>The investment thesis extends beyond cryptocurrencies associated with AI projects. BlackRock is examining whether blockchains can become financial infrastructure for an economy in which software increasingly makes purchasing decisions, manages resources and executes transactions.<\/p>\n<h2>Compute Is a Trillion-Dollar Opportunity, but Not Yet a Commodity<\/h2>\n<p>The expansion of AI is turning computing capacity into an increasingly valuable economic resource. Analyst estimates cited by BlackRock suggest hyperscaler cloud revenue could exceed $1 trillion annually by 2030.<\/p>\n<p>The potential digital-asset opportunity lies in how that capacity is purchased, financed and allocated.<\/p>\n<p>Rather than relying exclusively on conventional cloud contracts, AI agents could eventually search across providers, compare available resources and purchase computing power through programmable transactions.<\/p>\n<p>Standardized digital claims could also allow infrastructure providers to finance future capacity.<\/p>\n<p>However, compute is considerably harder to standardize than money.<\/p>\n<p>One dollar-denominated stablecoin is designed to be economically interchangeable with another unit of the same token. Computing capacity varies according to processor generation, memory, network connectivity, geographic location, availability and workload.<\/p>\n<p>An hour of GPU capacity from two providers may deliver substantially different results.<\/p>\n<p>For tokenized compute to develop into a liquid market, buyers would need reliable information about the underlying hardware, guaranteed availability and independently verifiable performance. Digital ownership records alone cannot solve those problems.<\/p>\n<p>This creates an important distinction in BlackRock\u2019s thesis: blockchain infrastructure could facilitate transactions involving compute long before computing capacity itself becomes a widely traded digital asset.<\/p>\n<h2>AI Agents Could Become a New Class of Stablecoin Users<\/h2>\n<p>The payments opportunity has fewer technical barriers.<\/p>\n<p>An autonomous agent purchasing an API request, accessing a dataset or renting cloud capacity does not need a standardized global compute market. It needs authorization to spend, an accepted payment instrument and a way to complete transactions without interrupting its workflow.<\/p>\n<p>BlackRock identifies stablecoins as a potential foundation for these interactions.<\/p>\n<p>According to the paper, stablecoin circulation exceeded $300 billion, while adjusted transaction volume surpassed $11 trillion in 2025. The firm also cites approximately 80% compound annual growth in adjusted stablecoin transaction volume between 2020 and 2025.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crypto-news-flash.com\/cloudflare-picks-stablecoins-as-the-rail-for-ai-agent-payments\/\">AI agents could introduce<\/a><\/strong> a different pattern of activity into that existing infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p>Instead of occasional payments initiated by consumers or businesses, autonomous software could generate large numbers of small transactions while continuously purchasing data, computing resources and digital services.<\/p>\n<p>The economic significance would depend on both payment frequency and the value transferred, rather than transaction volume alone.<\/p>\n<h2>Coinbase, Stripe and Visa Are Building Machine Payment Infrastructure<\/h2>\n<p>Emerging payment protocols provide early examples of how autonomous transactions might work.<\/p>\n<p>Coinbase\u2019s x402 uses the HTTP 402 Payment Required status code to enable software to pay for access to digital services. An AI agent requesting paid data can receive payment instructions, transfer the required funds and continue after settlement is verified.<\/p>\n<p>The process can operate without a conventional checkout interface.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/stripe.com\/blog\/machine-payments-protocol? target=\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Other companies are developing<\/a><\/strong> approaches to the same problem. BlackRock highlights Stripe and Tempo\u2019s Machine Payments Protocol, Stripe and OpenAI\u2019s Agentic Commerce Protocol, Google\u2019s Agents Payment Protocol and Visa\u2019s Trusted Agents Protocol.<\/p>\n<p>These initiatives also illustrate a competitive challenge for blockchain networks.<\/p>\n<p>Not every machine payment needs to occur onchain. Conventional payment providers can integrate autonomous purchasing into existing financial infrastructure, particularly where merchants already have established accounts and payment relationships.<\/p>\n<p>Blockchain-based systems would need to demonstrate advantages in areas such as continuous settlement, global accessibility, transaction costs and programmability.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Two possible paths for AI payments<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>TRADITIONAL RAILS<\/p>\n<p>Agent-enabled payments<\/p>\n<p>AI agents initiate transactions through existing payment providers and merchant accounts.<\/p>\n<p>Established acceptance and compliance infrastructure.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>BLOCKCHAIN RAILS<\/p>\n<p>Machine-native payments<\/p>\n<p>Software wallets execute programmable transfers using stablecoins or other digital assets.<\/p>\n<p>Continuous settlement and potentially granular micropayments.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Illustrative comparison of payment architectures, not a claim that one will replace the other.<span>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2>More AI Payments Do Not Automatically Mean Higher Token Prices<\/h2>\n<p>BlackRock also identifies a possible connection between autonomous economic activity and demand for blockchain infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p>Machine payments executed on public networks consume blockspace and may generate transaction fees. Greater activity could therefore increase demand for network capacity and validator services.<\/p>\n<p>Whether that translates into value for native cryptoassets is a separate question.<\/p>\n<p>The relationship depends on each blockchain\u2019s fee structure, staking arrangements, transaction capacity and mechanisms for capturing economic value.<\/p>\n<p>A network could process substantial stablecoin activity while collecting relatively little revenue per transaction.<\/p>\n<p>Conversely, higher fees could make that network less attractive for the extremely small payments AI agents might generate.<\/p>\n<p>For investors, the distinction is between growing blockchain usage and growing economic value captured by a particular token. The two should not be treated as interchangeable.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The machine-economy scorecard<\/p>\n<p>Four indicators that could distinguish genuine adoption from speculative interest.<\/p>\n<div>\n<table role=\"presentation\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>1<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>Agent-initiated stablecoin volume<\/p>\n<p>Measures the value of actual payments initiated by autonomous software rather than conventional crypto trading.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<table role=\"presentation\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>2<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>Average machine-payment size<\/p>\n<p>Shows whether micropayments are emerging as a distinct use case or agents primarily execute conventional-sized transactions.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<table role=\"presentation\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>3<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>Blockchain fees from autonomous activity<\/p>\n<p>Tests whether machine transactions generate measurable demand for blockspace and network services.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<table role=\"presentation\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>4<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>Value of tokenized compute<\/p>\n<p>Tracks computing capacity financed, traded or settled through digital assets alongside evidence of actual delivery.<span>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>These indicators would provide a more useful picture of adoption than the market capitalization of AI-themed cryptocurrencies.<\/p>\n<p>They also separate two different stages of development. Machine payments require reliable digital money and automated transaction infrastructure. Tokenized compute additionally requires standardized resource claims, credible delivery verification and sufficient market liquidity.<\/p>\n<p>The latter remains a considerably more demanding commercial proposition.<\/p>\n<p>BlackRock\u2019s trillion-dollar cloud opportunity should therefore not be interpreted as a forecast for the size of an eventual onchain compute market. The relevant question is how much of that economic activity will benefit from blockchain-based financing, purchasing or settlement.<\/p>\n<p>If autonomous agents begin generating sustained payment demand, the first evidence may appear in stablecoin transactions and network fees, well before compute develops into a liquid digital-asset market.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crypto-news-flash.com\/\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>All news is rigorously fact-checked and reviewed by leading blockchain experts and seasoned industry insiders. BlackRock sees AI agents creating demand for stablecoins and programmable payment infrastructure. Compute could become a new market for tokenized claims, financing and automated settlement. Payments face fewer technical barriers than tokenized compute, making adoption easier to measure. BlackRock sees [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":661164,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[25],"class_list":{"0":"post-661163","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-other","8":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/e-bitco.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/e-bitco.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/e-bitco.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e-bitco.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e-bitco.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/e-bitco.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e-bitco.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/661164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/e-bitco.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e-bitco.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e-bitco.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}