At the World Economic Forum in Davos, cryptocurrency industry leaders forecast a seismic shift where autonomous AI agents will become the primary drivers of economic transactions using stablecoins. Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire projected that within three to five years, "literally billions" of AI agents will be conducting continuous economic activity on behalf of users, requiring a money system that is stable, fast, and programmable.
Allaire argued that tokenized dollars, like Circle's USDC, are poised to become the neutral payments layer for this "agentic commerce." He pushed back against regulatory concerns that stablecoins would drain bank deposits, suggesting more fitting comparisons to other financial instruments. Meanwhile, former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao stated that "the native currency for AI agents is going to be crypto," forecasting crypto as the main medium of digital value exchange for these autonomous programs.
The financial scale of this convergence is staggering. Investment firm Bitwise estimates the fusion of crypto and AI could add $20 trillion to global GDP by 2030. This bullish sentiment fueled a 16% increase in venture capital investment in 2025, with over $565 million flowing into startups at the intersection of AI and crypto.
Technical development is accelerating, with companies racing to build the underlying infrastructure. Protocols are being tested to allow machines to authorize payments automatically when conditions are met, and major tech groups are exploring platforms for software to pay for services autonomously. Venture firm Andreessen Horowitz highlighted in its 2026 outlook that smart contracts can already settle global dollar payments in seconds, enabling agents to pay for data, GPU time, or API calls instantly and without traditional invoicing.
However, the path forward is not without challenges. Regulators are closely monitoring the potential for rapid stablecoin growth, with concerns about money flow, consumer protection, and the location of bank deposits. Furthermore, technical choices will shape new risks; systems will require robust identity checks, fault handling, and safeguards against fraud and runaway payments as agents move value at scale.
