Within three to five years, billions of artificial intelligence agents that can work without human input will use crypto and stablecoins for everyday payments on behalf of users, says Jeremy Allaire, the CEO of stablecoin issuer Circle.
“Three years, five years from now, one can reasonably expect that there will be billions, literally billions of AI agents conducting economic activity in the world on a continuous basis,” Allaire said on Thursday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“They need an economic system. They need a financial system. They need a payment system. There is no other alternative, in my view, other than stablecoins to do that right now.”
⚡️NEW: Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire says stablecoins are the only system that can support billions of AI agents transacting at scale. pic.twitter.com/Evt5PWY3Le
— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) January 22, 2026
Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao shared a similar view on stage at the WEF on Thursday, saying the “native currency for AI agents is going to be crypto” and will do everything from buying tickets to paying restaurant bills.
“They’re not going to use bank cards. They’re not going to swipe credit cards. They’re going to use crypto,” Zhao said, adding that blockchain is the “most native technology interface for AI agents.”
Crypto making tools for AI commerce
In May, Coinbase’s development team introduced the online payments protocol, x402, to enable AI agents to transact with stablecoins over the internet.
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The tool taps the largely forgotten HTTP web standard, HTTP 402 “Payment Required” status, and Ethereum Improvement Proposal 3009, a pre-signed authorization feature, to enable AI agents to transfer funds automatically without manual approval or paying gas fees.
On Jan. 11, Google introduced the Universal Commerce Protocol to power agentic commerce, potentially creating competition for the crypto space.
Google’s protocol uses its Agent Payment Protocol 2 to facilitate transfers on behalf of users, with Google Pay serving as the default payment handler for US dollar transactions.
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