What are AI agents in crypto?

What is an AI agent?

An AI agent is software that can reason, make decisions, and take actions on its own — without needing a human to approve every step.

You've used simpler versions of this already. Email filters that sort your inbox. Algorithms that recommend what to watch next. Automated trading tools that execute orders when prices hit a target.

The new generation of AI agents goes further. They can browse the internet, write code, manage files, send communications, and increasingly — handle money. They don't just advise. They act.

The problem until recently was that acting in the financial world required a human in the loop. An AI could identify a trade opportunity, but couldn't execute it. It could notice your portfolio needed rebalancing, but couldn't do the rebalancing. Every financial action required a person to step in and authorize it.

That's the wall that's now being broken down.

Why do AI agents need crypto?

When AI agents start making financial decisions autonomously, they need money that moves at the speed of code.

Traditional banking infrastructure doesn't work for this. Banks have business hours. International transfers take days. Every transaction runs through layers of compliance checks designed for human behavior, not machine behavior. An AI agent that needs to pay for an API call, fund a strategy at 03:00 on a Sunday, or send $0.001 to another agent as a micropayment simply cannot operate efficiently on legacy rails.

Crypto solves this. It's programmable, borderless, and available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Transactions settle in seconds. Stablecoins hold a fixed dollar value, removing the volatility problem for routine payments. Smart contracts can hold funds and release them automatically based on conditions — no intermediary required.

MoonPay's CEO put it directly at launch: "AI agents can reason, but they cannot act economically without capital infrastructure. The fastest way to move money is crypto".

What are they actually doing with it?

The use cases are already live, not theoretical.

Paying for their own compute. An AI agent running complex models needs to pay for processing power. With a crypto wallet, it can pay API providers directly — in stablecoins, instantly, without a human submitting invoices.

Executing trades autonomously. Agents can monitor DeFi positions, identify opportunities, and rebalance portfolios automatically. Coinbase's Agentic Wallets are specifically built for this: "They'll monitor DeFi positions and rebalance automatically."

Machine-to-machine payments. When one AI agent needs data or a service from another, it can pay directly using the x402 protocol — a standard built for exactly this. Coinbase's x402 has already processed over 50 million transactions.

Automated treasury management. At ETHDenver 2026 in February, developers showcased AI-led trading systems and automated treasury tools — agents managing capital pools, executing yield strategies, and rebalancing across protocols without human intervention.

Creator payouts and microtransactions. Amounts too small for bank transfers — $0.01, $0.001 — are trivial on fast blockchain networks. Agents can distribute micro-rewards, pay contributors, and settle small transactions at scale.

Where are Bitcoin and Ethereum in this?

Not all crypto is equally suited to the agent economy. The assets that matter most are the ones with the deepest liquidity, the most infrastructure support, and the widest institutional trust.

Bitcoin is the reserve asset — the digital gold that agents and the systems they operate within treat as a store of value. Corporations like Strategy are already holding Bitcoin as a treasury asset for exactly this reason: it holds value outside the traditional financial system. As AI systems manage larger pools of capital, Bitcoin serves as the neutral, decentralized anchor.

Ethereum is the programmable layer — the network where smart contracts run, where DeFi protocols live, and where most stablecoins exist. USDC and USDT, the stablecoins AI agents use most for payments, are primarily Ethereum-based tokens. Ethereum's ERC-8004 standard now assigns on-chain identities to AI agents, giving them verifiable digital identities for interacting with contracts and protocols. The World Economic Forum estimates the AI agent market could reach $236 billion by 2034 — and the majority of that activity will settle on Ethereum infrastructure.

Stablecoins — primarily USDC and USDT — are the working currency. They hold a fixed $1 value, which makes them practical for routine transactions where volatility would create chaos. An agent paying $10 for API access needs confidence that $10 will still be $10 in ten seconds.

How big is this becoming?

The numbers are already meaningful. Virtuals Protocol — one of the leading AI agent platforms — reported $478 million in autonomous agent revenue. The Cambrian Network's Agentic Finance Landscape, mapping companies building agent infrastructure, received over 104,000 engagements when shared last week. A McKinsey survey found roughly a quarter of companies are already expanding their use of AI agents.

The World Economic Forum projects the AI agent market could grow to $236 billion by 2034. Binance CEO Richard Teng, writing to his 356,000 followers this week, described the convergence of stablecoins, AI agents, and blockchain as one of the defining trends of 2026.

The infrastructure is being built right now.

What does this mean for individual investors?

The most direct takeaway is simple: the assets powering the AI agent economy are the same assets you can hold, earn on, and borrow against today.

Bitcoin and Ethereum are the reserve assets and programmable infrastructure of the agent economy. Stablecoins like USDC and USDT are the working currency. All of them are available on Nexo — and none of them have to sit idle while you wait.

With Nexo, you can:

• Earn interest on Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDC, and more through Flexible and Fixed-term Savings.

• Borrow against your holdings via the Nexo Credit Line, accessing liquidity without selling your position.

• Buy and exchange between assets instantly, 24/7, across 100+ digital assets.

The agent economy doesn't change the fundamentals of why Bitcoin and Ethereum have value. If anything, it adds a new and growing source of demand to assets that were already building strong long-term cases for themselves.

Frequently asked questions

1. What is an AI agent in crypto?

An AI agent in crypto is autonomous software that can hold a crypto wallet, make financial decisions, and execute transactions — trading, paying for services, or managing a portfolio — without needing human approval for every action.

2. Why do AI agents use cryptocurrency instead of traditional money?

Traditional banking is too slow, too expensive, and too restricted for autonomous systems. Crypto settles in seconds, operates 24/7, supports micropayments, and runs on programmable smart contracts — all of which match how AI agents need to operate.

3. Which cryptocurrencies do AI agents use?

Primarily stablecoins like USDC and USDT for payments (because they hold a fixed $1 value), Ethereum as the programmable network where most activity happens, and Bitcoin as a reserve store of value.

4. What is x402?

x402 is a payments protocol designed specifically for machine-to-machine transactions. It enables AI agents to pay for APIs, data, and services autonomously using stablecoins, without human intervention. Coinbase's implementation has processed over 50 million transactions.

5. Is the AI agent economy real or just hype?

It's already live. Coinbase launched Agentic Wallets in February 2026. MoonPay launched non-custodial agent infrastructure on February 24, 2026. Virtuals Protocol has reported $478 million in autonomous agent revenue. The infrastructure is being built and used, not just discussed.

6. How can individual investors benefit from the AI agent trend?

The most straightforward approach is holding the assets that power the AI agent economy — Bitcoin, Ethereum, and stablecoins — and making them work through yield products and borrowing rather than holding them idle. Platforms like Nexo let you do all of this from a single account.

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