Alchemy CEO Claims Crypto was Designed for AI, Not Humans

The modern financial system was not designed with machines in mind. Instead, it was built around human constraints such as geographical location, sleep patterns, paperwork, 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 the crypto firm Alchemy. "You can argue that crypto was built for AI agents, not humans," Viswanathan said. The discrepancy is evident everywhere, with banks having operating hours due to human limitations, payments being tied to countries, and credit cards requiring physical identity and presence. In contrast, AI agents operate differently, as they do not sleep, have no physical location, and do not use banks or credit cards. Moreover, they are increasingly involved in transactions. All transactions for agents are online and inherently global, Viswanathan said in an interview. This is where crypto starts to look like the native infrastructure for a new type of economic actor, rather than an alternative financial system. Alchemy, a crypto infrastructure company, provides the necessary tools and services for developers to build blockchain-based applications, including APIs, node infrastructure, and data services. Traditional finance is based on the assumption of friction, with cross-border payments involving currency exchanges, intermediaries, delays, and fees. However, for AI agents, this is not feasible. Agents require seamless transactions across borders, often in small increments, and need programmability, direct control over money via code, and systems that do not rely on physical infrastructure or identity. Crypto offers exactly that: a global, always-on financial layer where value can be transferred as easily as data. The complexity of crypto, including seed phrases, private keys, and interacting directly with code, is what makes it powerful for machines. Unlike humans, agents operate natively in code and read in zeros and ones. 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. In the future, AI agents will sit on top of crypto infrastructure, handling complexity automatically, managing wallets, executing transactions, and optimizing capital flows in real time, making it easier for people to control their funds. The result will be a financial system that is more global, programmable, and autonomous, with a layered structure consisting of traditional finance and crypto as the base, an agent layer operating on top, and a human interface above that.