AI Agents, Not Humans, Will Be Next Major Cryptocurrency Buyers ⋆ ZyCrypto

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has stated in a recent interview that the next users of cryptocurrencies may not even be humans but rather Artificial Intelligence (AI) agents. These automated decision-making programs are becoming popular, and they are handling many personal and commercial tasks that require seamless transactional capacity.

Armstrong Big on AI Use Case

The top executive gave these comments on a podcast with David Senra. They talk on a variety of topics, ranging from recent regulatory hurdles to the role of crypto in AI. Armstrong said:

“More and more code is being written by these agents, more than 50% now. Customer support inquiries I think are about 60% answered by Agents now. We’re testing different use cases, for instance around compliance automation we’re building a lot of stuff in-house, design totally rapidly prototype stuff. The thing that’s more unique to crypto is that these AI agents are increasingly needing to do payments and we’re giving them all stablecoin wallets…,”

Armstrong believes that the primary use case here is an autonomous machine-to-machine payment capability that can revolutionize the tangible appeal of AI agents. He further argues that traditional finance wasn’t designed for this kind of functionality, and that only digital currencies, especially stablecoins, are equipped to handle it.

He elaborates that this is not wishful thinking as Coinbase is already implementing this strategy at full pace. AI agents on the exchange platform act as digital employees for tasks that require transactions, such as spinning up AWS resources. Armstrong further states that their input is always considered useful in the company’s decision-making process. Using stablecoins to enable further action seems like the logical step in the next phase of the company’s iteration.

The Future

Coinbase and the crypto community in general are currently locked in a months-long struggle to get a favorable CLARITY Act passed into law. Armstrong lobbied for its passage for a large part of 2025 before recently withdrawing support based on its current composition. He opposes further empowering the SEC, weakening the CFTC, and limiting stablecoin yield rewards. 

Now, with the Act back under deliberation, the CEO has gone on the offensive regarding the role of stablecoins in the tech of tomorrow, especially AI itself. A “bad bill” is not the answer to regulatory concerns, he argues, and the sector would be better off with no legislation at all.