🤖 The robots are going to need a bank account

BlackRock published a paper this week arguing the next big crypto demand wave won't come from institutions — it'll come from AI agents paying their own bills.

The logic: agentic AI systems already book, pay, and call APIs with minimal human input. Problem is, traditional rails weren't built for this — no bank account without an ID, and card fees make no sense on a sub-cent API call. Stablecoins fit naturally: always on, no intermediary, instant settlement.

Adjusted stablecoin volume hit $11 trillion in 2025, growing ~80% a year versus 8.5% for bank transfers. Reality check from TRM Labs: AI agents currently drive just 0.6–7.5% of volume on Coinbase's x402 protocol — most traffic is still ordinary scripts.

BlackRock isn't saying the moment has arrived. It's saying the pipes are being laid before it does.

Decrypt