Crypto Infrastructure Better Suited for AI Agents Than Humans, According to Alchemy CEO

The existing financial system was not designed with machines in mind, but rather around human constraints such as geographical location, sleep patterns, and physical presence. However, as AI agents begin to participate in the economy, this human-centric design is becoming a bottleneck, according to Nikil Viswanathan, co-founder of the crypto firm Alchemy. Viswanathan suggests that crypto was actually built for AI agents, not humans. The traditional financial system has limitations such as operating hours, country-specific payments, and credit cards that require physical identity and presence, which do not apply to AI agents. AI agents operate around the clock, have no physical location, and do not use traditional banking systems or credit cards. Instead, they transact online and require a global, programmable, and autonomous financial system. Crypto offers exactly that, providing a global, always-on financial layer where value can be transferred seamlessly across borders. According to Viswanathan, what has made crypto difficult for humans to use, such as seed phrases and private keys, is actually what makes it powerful for machines. The complexity of crypto is flipped when it comes to AI agents, as they operate natively in code and can read zeros and ones, the same language as crypto. Viswanathan compares the shift from crypto being used by humans to being used by AI agents to the shift from the postal system to the internet, where communication became much faster and more efficient. He envisions a future where AI agents sit on top of crypto infrastructure, handling complexity, managing wallets, and optimizing capital flows in real time, making it easier for people to control their funds. This would result in a more global, programmable, and autonomous financial system, with traditional finance and crypto at the base, an agent layer operating on top, and a human interface above that.