AI Agents Use Crypto for Financial Transactions, Fueling Rise of Agentic Finance
AI agents are evolving beyond chatbots and investment assistants. They can now autonomously search, make payments and manage assets within spending limits, permissions and objectives set by humans, giving rise to “agentic finance.” First Digital CEO Vincent Chok sees stablecoins, blockchains and wallets becoming a programmable financial back end that operates around the clock.
CoinDesk published Chok's analysis on April 23, 2026. It cited a PwC survey of more than 300 companies in which 79% said they had adopted AI agents in some form. Current uses include cross-chain swaps, DeFi yield optimization and machine-to-machine micropayments, although actual transaction values were not disclosed. Agent transaction volumes, dedicated wallets and regulatory developments will be key areas to watch over the next 12 months.
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The history behind this eventCoinbase CEO Casts Crypto as Financial Rails for AI Agents
AI agents can execute tasks and transactions autonomously, but they cannot readily open bank accounts, wait days for wire transfers or operate within a single national system. Coinbase co-founder and Chief Executive Brian Armstrong argues that crypto therefore complements artificial intelligence rather than competing with it, providing real-time, programmable money rails. He calls the emerging model Agentic Finance, or AiFi, built around Coinbase’s Base blockchain, the x402 payments protocol and the USDC stablecoin.
In a July 26, 2026 post on X, Armstrong dismissed calls for crypto companies to pivot to AI as “zero-sum, scarcity thinking,” saying AI’s rise makes digital-asset infrastructure more important. Chainalysis reported in June that AI-agent payments conducted through x402 on Base had exceeded 100 million transactions after roughly nine months of activity. Transactions worth at least $1 accounted for 95% of the total value transferred, the blockchain analytics firm said, offering an early measure of machine-to-machine payment adoption.
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