BlackRock, the $15 trillion asset manager, published a research report on October 6 arguing that autonomous AI agents will become the next major source of demand for crypto-native payment infrastructure, with stablecoins handling transactions and bitcoin serving as a long-term reserve asset.

The report, titled "The Machine-Native Economy," positions public blockchain rails as the natural settlement layer for machine-to-machine commerce that existing card networks and automated clearing houses cannot efficiently support. BlackRock cited simulation research from the Bitcoin Policy Institute showing that controlled models generally favor stablecoins for everyday payments and bitcoin for long-duration savings.

What does BlackRock actually argue?

The thesis rests on a structural mismatch between legacy payment infrastructure and the operational profile of agentic AI. Card networks and ACH systems involve human-driven onboarding, fees that make sub-cent transactions uneconomic and slower settlement, the report said.

"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," BlackRock wrote.

The use cases BlackRock envisions include AI agents booking travel, purchasing datasets and renting compute capacity on their own initiative. Each transaction could fall below a cent in value, a price point that mainstream card rails effectively exclude.

Why split the role between stablecoins and bitcoin?

The report drew on Bitcoin Policy Institute simulations that separated transactional and store-of-value functions across digital assets. Stablecoins take the operational role, settling high-volume agent activity. Bitcoin occupies a separate position as a multi-year reserve.

"These findings point to a potential AI-native monetary architecture in which stablecoins serve as transactional money and bitcoin as a store of value," the report said.

That split mirrors the institutional playbook BlackRock has already deployed at scale. The firm's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), approved by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in January 2024, manages more than $67 billion in assets and ranks as the most successful ETF launch on record by capital gathered.

Where does tokenization fit?

BlackRock extended the argument beyond bitcoin and stablecoins to tokenized real-world assets. As agentic systems gain capability, the report said, "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 firm has been building toward that positioning for two years. BlackRock operates tokenized money-market funds on permissioned ledgers and has publicly described bitcoin as a unique asset class that investors buy to hedge sovereign-debt risk.

What changes if the thesis holds?

If even a small share of machine-to-machine payment volume migrates to public chains, the addressable market for stablecoin issuers, Layer 1 settlement networks and tokenized treasury products expands well beyond retail crypto trading. BlackRock's report signals that the world's largest asset manager is preparing analytical, operational and product pipelines for that scenario.

The report does not specify a timeline, and the share of agent-driven transactions that will ultimately route through permissionless chains remains unproven. The next test will be whether stablecoin issuers and tokenized-fund platforms can deliver the throughput, compliance tooling and counterparty protections that institutional counterparties require before machine-driven flows cross the threshold from pilot to production.