According to Woofun AI, BlackRock (BLK.US) established the homology between artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency in the recently released “Machine Native Economy” report. The document, co-authored by Robert Mitchnick, head of the digital asset business, points out that AI is machine-native intelligence, and cryptocurrencies are machine-native currency. Together, the two serve AI agents without human intervention.
Traditional payment systems show structural flaws in dealing with machine interaction. Checks and bank transfers not only rely on manual operations, but high fees and day-long settlement cycles make it difficult to maintain micropayments. In contrast, stablecoins linked to the US dollar provide a seamless solution. According to data compiled by Woofun AI, stablecoin circulation exceeded 11 trillion US dollars in 2025, which is comparable to Visa (V.US) and Mastercard (MA.US). To support this ecosystem, Coinbase (COIN.US) launched an x402 protocol that allows instant software payments. Cardano also connected to the platform at the beginning of this month, marking substantial progress in infrastructure construction.
A deeper transformation lies in computing power transactions. As the core of AI operation, computing power is expected to achieve standardized contract settlement through blockchain. Analysts predict that by 2030, Amazon (AMZN.US), Microsoft (MSFT.US), and Google (GOOGL.US) cloud service revenue will be close to $1.1 trillion. Payment giant Stripe is actively planning to acquire OpenRouter, which can route to more than 400 models, in August. CEO Patrick Collison bluntly stated that tokens are the core currency of AI development companies.
Meanwhile, BlackRock's own holdings also reflect market fluctuations. As of September 25, iShares statistics showed that IBIT held $67 billion worth of Bitcoin, even though the fund's net worth had dropped by about one-third this year.
Despite the broad prospects, real-world applications still face limitations. Currently, the payment function of AI agents is not perfect. BeInCrypto's analysis last week indicates that although the AI model in testing tends to use stablecoins for consumption and Bitcoin storage, this is only based on simulated scenarios rather than actual purchasing behavior, and is still far from being implemented on a large scale.