Artificial intelligence and digital assets are beginning to converge, with AI models showing a preference for bitcoin and stablecoins, according to research cited by BlackRock . 

In a new report, the $15 trillion Wall Street giant said that card networks and automated clearing houses involve human-driven onboarding, fees that make tiny payments uneconomic and slower settlement and finality.

The report, “The Machine-Native Economy”, is a bet that the next big source of crypto demand won’t be human investors but software. As AI agents begin booking travel, buying data and renting computing power on their own, BlackRock argues, they will need payment systems that run around the clock and can handle transactions worth fractions of a cent.

“As AI agents become more capable and as their real-world applications expand, they increasingly demand payment and asset infrastructure designed natively for machine-speed commerce,” the report read. 

“Crypto-native blockchain rails are particularly well suited to high-frequency, sub-cent, machine-to-machine transactions that take place around-the-clock, including API calls, on-demand data, and consumption based compute.”

It added that the Bitcoin Policy Institute research found that “controlled simulations generally favored stablecoins for everyday payments and bitcoin for long-term value preservation.”

“As AI adoption broadens and agentic systems become more capable, digital

assets could become increasingly integral to AI’s economic infrastructure, expanding utility across stablecoins, tokenized RWAs, and native cryptoassets that support blockchain settlement,” the report noted. 

BlackRock has long praised Bitcoin and other crypto apps that utilize its technology, like the tokenization of assets. 

The Securities and Exchange Commission in 2024 approved BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust, 

which has since attracted the most investment and trading volume out of all U.S. bitcoin ETFs. The fund had the most successful debut in the history of ETFs and now manages over $67 billion in assets. 

BlackRock has previously said that Bitcoin is in an asset class of its own, and that investors are buying it to hedge against any potential debt crises.