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

The current financial system was not created with machines in mind, but rather around human limitations such as geographical location, sleep patterns, and physical presence. However, as AI agents become more involved in economic activities, this human-centric design is becoming a hindrance, according to Nikil Viswanathan, co-founder of the cryptocurrency firm Alchemy. "One could argue that cryptocurrency was built for AI agents, not humans," Viswanathan said. The traditional banking system, which includes operating hours, country-based payments, and credit cards that require physical identification and presence, is not designed for AI agents that do not sleep, have no physical location, and do not use traditional banking methods. AI agents operate entirely online, conducting global transactions without interruption. According to Viswanathan, 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 cryptocurrency 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 the assumption of friction, which is normal for humans but unusable for AI agents. These agents require seamless cross-border transactions, programmability, and direct control over funds via code, without relying on physical infrastructure or identity. Cryptocurrency offers exactly that: a global, always-on financial layer where value can be transferred as easily as data. The complexity of cryptocurrency, including seed phrases, private keys, and interacting directly with code, is challenging for humans but powerful for machines. AI agents operate natively in code, reading zeros and ones as their native language, 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 this shift to the transition from the postal system to the internet, where communication became much faster. He believes that moving forward, AI agents will utilize cryptocurrency infrastructure, handling complexity automatically, managing wallets, executing transactions, and optimizing capital flows in real-time, allowing people to control their funds more easily. The result would be a more global, programmable, and autonomous financial system, with a layered future consisting of traditional finance and cryptocurrency as the base, an agent layer operating on top, and a human interface above that.