AI agents may need crypto more than humans ever did

<p class="text-align-justify" style="text-align: justify;">For years, crypto has been trying to convince the world that we need a new way to pay for everything. However, the only problem with that is most of us already have pretty good options.</p><p class="text-align-justify" style="text-align: justify;">Let's say I want to buy something online, I can use Visa, Mastercard, Apple Pay or even a bank transfer. They are familiar, quick and generally work well enough. So, imagine telling consumers they should suddenly start paying in stablecoins. It's a slightly difficult argument to make.</p><p class="text-align-justify" style="text-align: justify;">But perhaps humans were never going to be the most interesting customer. That designation may actually turn out to belong to AI agents instead.</p><p class="text-align-justify" style="text-align: justify;">Last week, BlackRock argued that AI could become an important driver of digital asset adoption. That especially as <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/09/23/ai-agents-will-soon-buy-their-own-computing-power-and-data-using-stablecoins-according-to-blackrock" rel="follow">autonomous agents begin paying for things like data and computing power</a>.</p><p class="text-align-justify" style="text-align: justify;">And so when you think about what an AI agent actually needs from money, that argument starts to make sense.</p><p class="text-align-justify" style="text-align: justify;">Why AI agents could need stablecoins</p><p class="text-align-justify" style="text-align: justify;">To keep things simple, an AI agent is basically software that can carry out tasks on your behalf.</p><p class="text-align-justify" style="text-align: justify;">Just imagine telling one to research a holiday, compare flights and hotels and book the cheapest option within your budget. That already sounds familiar, doesn't it?</p><p class="text-align-justify" style="text-align: justify;">But in the future, that same agent might also need to buy access to a database for a few cents, use another AI model or pay for computing power.</p><p class="text-align-justify" style="text-align: justify;">As humans, we can pull out a credit card to resolve that. However, software needs something that works a little differently.</p><p class="text-align-justify" style="text-align: justify;">This is where stablecoins come into play. They are digital, programmable and capable of moving around the clock; all characteristics that matter far more when the payer is software rather than a person.</p><p class="text-align-justify" style="text-align: justify;"></p><p class="text-align-justify" style="text-align: justify;">Coinbase's x402 payments protocol is one early example of that. It allows software to encounter something that costs money, make the payment and continue with its task without someone manually entering card details.</p><p class="text-align-justify" style="text-align: justify;">In July this year, CoinDesk reported that <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2026/07/15/visa-mastercard-and-ripple-join-the-standard-letting-ai-agents-pay-in-stablecoins" rel="follow">x402 had handled roughly 75 million payments worth $24 million over 30 days</a>, with an average transaction of only around 32 cents. That is quite something and is very different from let's say convincing someone to pay for dinner in USDC.</p><p class="text-align-justify" style="text-align: justify;">What we're talking about here is potentially millions of tiny payments happening between machines.</p><p class="text-align-justify" style="text-align: justify;">Crypto still has to beat traditional payments</p><p class="text-align-justify" style="text-align: justify;">Of course, it doesn't mean that crypto automatically wins here.</p><p class="text-align-justify" style="text-align: justify;">Google is developing its <a href="https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/platforms/google-pay/agent-payments-protocol-fido-alliance/" rel="follow">Agent Payments Protocol</a>, which now supports autonomous "human not present" transactions based on instructions given by the user beforehand. And we also have Visa and Mastercard building infrastructure for agent-led commerce, with <a href="https://www.mastercard.com/us/en/news-and-trends/press/2026/june/mastercard-launches-agent-pay-for-machines.html" rel="follow">Mastercard's system supporting cards, bank accounts and stablecoins</a> rather than betting on one payment method alone.</p><p class="text-align-justify" style="text-align: justify;">Ultimately, it could still come down to a competition between different payment rails.</p><p class="text-align-justify" style="text-align: justify;">But at the end of the day, stablecoins do have one interesting advantage. They are already digital, programmable and capable of moving around the clock.</p><p class="text-align-justify" style="text-align: justify;">Humans may not care very much about those advantages because our existing payment systems already work. However, AI agents might care a lot more.</p><p class="text-align-justify" style="text-align: justify;">It's a funny story that crypto has spent years trying to persuade people that they need programmable money. But as it may turn out, machines need it more than we do.</p><p class="text-align-justify" style="text-align: justify;"></p><p class="text-align-justify" style="text-align: justify;"></p> This article was written by Justin Low at investinglive.com.