BlackRock Proposes "Machine-Native Economy": Which Chains and Tokens Can Generate Revenue from Agent Payments?

For chains and tokens, competitors are not just other chains, but also the agent-driven upgrade of the entire traditional payment system.

By Xiaobing

Global asset manager BlackRock released a research report this week titled "The Machine-Native Economy: How Digital Assets Connect Intelligence, Commerce, and Compute," proposing a concise and bold equation: AI is "machine-native intelligence," digital assets are "machine-native money," and blockchain is the programmable infrastructure connecting the two.

The report was primarily written by BlackRock's Digital Asset Research team, led by Will Su and Robert Mitchnick, who also heads BlackRock's iShares product line.

The core thesis of the report is: as more software agents (AI Agents) begin autonomously purchasing data, calling APIs, and renting compute, they require a payment rail that does not rely on humans clicking "confirm." Traditional bank accounts and credit card systems cannot serve software without IDs, while stablecoins and blockchain perfectly fill this gap.

In plain terms: robots need to spend money, but banks won't open accounts for them, so robots have to use cryptocurrency.

This narrative isn't new in the crypto industry, but having an institution of BlackRock's caliber back it carries different weight.