Alchemy CEO Claims Crypto is Better Suited for AI Agents Than Humans

The existing financial system was not designed with machines in mind, but rather around human constraints 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 bottleneck, according to Nikil Viswanathan, co-founder of Alchemy. Viswanathan argues that crypto was essentially 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. In contrast, AI agents operate around the clock, are not bound by geographical locations, and do not require physical presence or identity. They can transact online and are inherently global. Viswanathan believes that crypto is the native infrastructure for AI agents, offering a global and always-on financial layer where value can be transferred as easily as data. The complexity of crypto, which has long been a challenge for humans, is exactly what makes it powerful for machines. AI agents operate natively in code and can read zeros and ones, which is also the language of crypto. As AI agents begin to use crypto tools, the complexity of crypto will become less of an issue. Viswanathan compares this shift to the transition from the postal system to the internet, where communication became much faster and more efficient. In the future, AI agents will sit on top of crypto infrastructure, handling complexity automatically and optimizing flows of capital in real time. This will result in a financial system that is more global, programmable, and autonomous. Viswanathan envisions a layered future where traditional finance and crypto form the base, an agent layer operates on top, and a human interface is above that.