Ethereum, Circle’s Arc Set To Gain With Stablecoins Powering AI, Says BlackRock

According to BlackRock, compute is becoming a distinct and investable economic resource as AI agents multiply.

• BlackRock published a paper stating stablecoins will lead to transactional use as AI agents start paying each other.
• The paper named Ethereum and Circle's Arc as settlement venues for that activity.
• Privacy tokens rose 38.5% over the past week, while stablecoins rose 0.7%.

BlackRock (BLK) published a research paper on Tuesday arguing that stablecoins will be the money AI agents use to pay each other. 

BlackRock’s paper described AI as “machine-native intelligence” and digital assets as “machine-native money.” AI agents will need always-on rails for high-frequency, low-value payments. It argued that card networks and ACH were less suitable for that work because onboarding requirements and fees made very small transactions uneconomic.

The paper stated that stablecoins were likely to lead transactional use in agentic commerce. It named Ethereum (ETH) and Circle's (CRCL) Arc, where USD Coin (USDC) served as the network's gas asset, among the venues where that activity could settle. Greater stablecoin activity could lift demand for blockspace and support value capture for assets like ETH, BlackRock said.

ETH gained over 13% during the past week and posted a seven-month high on Tuesday. Ethereum's price, however, was down 0.3% during the past 24 hours. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around ETH remained in the 'bullish' zone, while chatter stayed at 'normal' levels over the past day.

CRCL stock was down over 1% in early morning trade. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around CRCL improved to ‘bearish’ from the ‘neutral’ zone over the past day. Chatter dropped to ‘normal’ from ‘high’ levels.  

Compute Emerging As A New Investable Asset Class

The paper also stated that compute was becoming a distinct and investable economic resource as AI agents multiply. Standardized compute contracts could be pledged as collateral and settled through programmable infrastructure, BlackRock wrote, with exchange-traded compute futures following as the market matured.

The paper cited estimates that cumulative AI capital spending could exceed $5 trillion between 2025 and 2030. Consensus estimates put combined revenue at Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft's (MSFT) Intelligent Cloud and Google (GOOG) Cloud at about $1.1 trillion by 2030.

Traders Rotate Into Privacy Coins

However, not all agree. In a Fundstrat webinar in late July, Tom Lee of Fundstrat cautioned that AI agents could eventually push human beings out of all economic activity. But humans need to be in the loop, he argued, and that would require a crypto blockchain layer. 

That tension is being played out in the market. As institutions pitch transparent, compliant rails for machine payments, traders are piling into tokens built to keep transactions private. Privacy coins have rallied, led by Monero (XMR) and Zcash (ZEC).

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