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

The current financial system was built around human limitations, such as geography, sleep patterns, and physical presence. However, with AI agents emerging as economic participants, this human-centric design is becoming a hindrance, according to Nikil Viswanathan, co-founder of Alchemy. "You can argue that crypto was built for AI agents, not humans," he said. The traditional financial system is constrained by factors like operating hours, country-specific payments, and credit cards that require physical identity and presence. In contrast, AI agents operate around the clock, are location-independent, and don't require physical interactions. As a result, they require a financial system that is global, always-on, and programmable. Crypto offers exactly that, providing a seamless, borderless, and efficient way for AI agents to transact. Viswanathan believes that crypto will become the native infrastructure for AI agents, enabling them to operate natively in code and interact with the financial system in a more direct and efficient way. This shift will revolutionize the financial system, making it more global, programmable, and autonomous. In the future, AI agents will sit on top of crypto infrastructure, handling complexity, managing wallets, and optimizing capital flows in real-time, allowing humans to control their funds more easily. Viswanathan envisions a layered future where traditional finance and crypto form the base, an agent layer operates on top, and a human interface sits above that.