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

The current financial system was built around human constraints such as geography, sleep patterns, and physical presence. However, with the emergence of AI agents as economic participants, this human-centric design is becoming a hindrance, according to Alchemy co-founder Nikil Viswanathan. 'One could argue that cryptocurrency was created for AI agents, not humans,' Viswanathan stated. The disparity is evident in various aspects, including banking hours, country-based payments, and credit cards that require physical identity and presence. In contrast, AI agents operate without sleep, physical location, or the need for cards, and they are increasingly involved in transactions. All transactions for agents are online and inherently global, Viswanathan noted. 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 crypto 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 designed with friction in mind, such as currency exchanges, intermediaries, and fees, which is normal for humans but unusable for AI agents. Agents require seamless, borderless transactions, programmability, and direct control over money 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 that has long made cryptocurrency challenging for humans, such as seed phrases and private keys, is actually a strength for machines, as they operate natively in code. Viswanathan compared the shift from crypto tools being built for humans to those being used by AI agents to the transition from the postal system to the internet. Just as email is more powerful than the postal system because it is designed for computers, cryptocurrency is similar. Looking ahead, Viswanathan envisions AI agents managing complexity, handling 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 structure consisting of traditional finance and crypto as the base, an agent layer on top, and a human interface above that.