AI Agents May Soon Outnumber Humans In Payments — Crypto Seen As Key Rail

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said that AI agents need to use crypto wallets because they can't open regular bank accounts.

• Armstrong argued that banks' KYC rules make it hard for agents to use their IDs, but crypto wallets can be opened with just private keys.
• Binance founder Changpeng Zhao believes that autonomous agents could make millions of times as many payments as people, thereby increasing demand for crypto-based payment systems.
• Some industry participants believe that the real end-users of crypto are autonomous AI systems.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has shed light on the role cryptocurrencies will play when autonomous artificial intelligence agents perform more transactions on behalf of humans.

Armstrong stated in a post on X on Monday that the number of AI agents conducting transactions may soon surpass the total number of digital payment users. He pointed out that although AI systems can't access conventional bank accounts, they can function with cryptocurrency wallets.

“Very soon, there are going to be more AI agents than humans making transactions,” Armstrong wrote. “They can’t open a bank account, but they can own a crypto wallet.”

Armstrong argued that banks' KYC rules make it hard for agents to use their IDs, but crypto wallets can be opened with just private keys, as shown by Coinbase's launch of Agentic Wallets in February 2026.

The remarks align with a growing conversation in the crypto sector about the potential of blockchain technology for machine-to-machine payments. AI agents have the potential to significantly increase transaction activity in the future, according to Changpeng Zhao, also known as CZ, the founder of Binance. “AI agents will make 1 million times more payments than humans, and they will use crypto,” Zhao wrote in a separate post.

Some industry participants think crypto wallets could become a natural financial layer for AI-driven activity because they can be created and run by software without requiring traditional banking verification procedures.

Some X users said that the end user of crypto isn't people, but AI agents themselves. 

Goat Network posted a blog saying that Bitcoin (BTC) gave people a way to use sound money that wasn't controlled by the government. Autonomous AI agents need a similar system. 

The Agent Standard

Banks, payment processors, and legal contracts are all made for people who have identities and legal rights. This means that machines can't use them because they can't open accounts or rely on dispute processes. 

As AI agents gain the ability to make their own economic choices, they need a type of "agent-native" money that can be programmed, is always available, and doesn't need people to act as middlemen. The author refers to this idea as the "Agent Standard," meaning that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin could form the basis of a financial system in which machines can operate and trade on their own as separate economic actors.

Read also: BTC Hits New Milestone: Over 95% Of Bitcoin Supply Mined, Only 1M Left

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