AI potential to drive crypto demand remains ‘underappreciated’: BlackRock

The world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, says broad AI adoption could represent an underappreciated source of demand for digital assets.

In its latest research paper, “The Machine-Native Economy,” BlackRock said the rise of AI and machine-to-machine payments could increase demand for blockchains and other programmable payment infrastructure, including stablecoins and other on-chain assets. It also sees a potential opportunity for digital assets to support the compute market, allowing claims on computing capacity to be tokenized, traded and used as collateral.

“Together, these developments position AI as a structural catalyst for digital asset adoption and digital assets as a potential facilitator of the AI economy,” BlackRock’s Will Su, Robert Mitchnick, Jay Jacobs and William Helm wrote. “This relationship remains underappreciated and could expand the role of digital assets as core infrastructure for an increasingly autonomous digital economy.”

The crypto industry has long argued the potential link between AI and digital assets, but BlackRock’s research could bring that thesis to its broader audience of institutional investors.

AI could drive need for machine-native payment rails