Crypto Designed for AI Agents, Not Humans, According to Alchemy CEO

The current financial system was not designed with machines in mind, but rather around human limitations such as geography, sleep patterns, and physical presence. However, as AI agents start to participate in the economy, this human-centric design is becoming a hindrance, according to Nikil Viswanathan, co-founder of crypto firm Alchemy. 'One could argue that cryptocurrency was built for AI agents, not humans,' Viswanathan said. The discrepancy is evident everywhere: banks have limited hours due to human constraints, payments are tied to countries because people live in them, and credit cards assume physical identity and presence. In contrast, AI agents operate without sleep, physical location, or the need for cards. They are increasingly capable of conducting transactions independently. 'All transactions for agents are online and inherently global,' Viswanathan explained in an interview. This is where cryptocurrency starts to resemble the native infrastructure for a new type of economic actor, rather than an alternative financial system. Alchemy, a crypto infrastructure company, provides developers with the necessary tools and services to build blockchain-based applications, including APIs, node infrastructure, and data services. Traditional finance is based on friction, with cross-border payments involving currency exchanges, intermediaries, and fees. However, for AI agents, this is impractical. Agents require seamless, borderless transactions, often in small increments, as well as programmability and direct control over money via code. Cryptocurrency offers exactly that: a global, always-on financial layer where value can be transferred as easily as data. 'Cryptocurrency is the global infrastructure for money that agents need,' Viswanathan stated. The complexity of cryptocurrency, including seed phrases, private keys, and interacting with code, is a hindrance for humans but a strength for machines. Unlike humans, agents operate natively in code and can read zeros and ones, which is also the language of cryptocurrency. For years, cryptocurrency has attempted to become more human-friendly, but its underlying architecture was never designed for humans. Viswanathan compared the shift from crypto tools being built primarily for humans to crypto tools being used by AI agents to the transition from the postal system to the internet. 'Email is far more powerful than the postal system because it's designed for computers,' Viswanathan said. 'Cryptocurrency is similar.' Looking ahead, Viswanathan envisions AI agents sitting on top of cryptocurrency infrastructure, handling complexity automatically, managing wallets, executing transactions, and optimizing capital flows in real-time, allowing people to control their funds more easily. 'You can write code to manage a cryptocurrency wallet, but you can't do the same with a bank account,' Viswanathan said. The result would be a financial system that is more global, programmable, and autonomous. Viswanathan sees a layered future: traditional finance and cryptocurrency as the base, an agent layer operating on top, and a human interface above that. 'Just like computers operate the internet and humans use it, agents will operate finance,' he said.