Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has published a post outlining the role cryptocurrencies will play in the development of artificial intelligence. He said the company is building Agentic Finance, an initiative in which crypto infrastructure will serve as the financial foundation for AI agents.
According to Armstrong, the idea that the crypto industry should shift its focus to AI is misguided. He argued that cryptocurrencies are general-purpose infrastructure, much like electricity or the internet. Rather than competing with crypto, the growth of AI will drive even greater demand for crypto.
Armstrong believes AI agents will eventually be able to hold their own funds, pay for goods and services, trade, act as financial advisors, raise and borrow capital for new projects, and handle tasks such as tax planning, portfolio rebalancing, and bill payments.
“AI agents will need their own financial infrastructure, and eventually they will carry out more transactions every day than all humans combined. They need programmable money with real-time settlement,” he said.
As an example, Armstrong pointed to the x402 protocol, the Base network, and the USDC stablecoin. According to him, these technologies already support the vast majority of AI agent payments. He believes they are laying the foundation for the financial infrastructure of autonomous systems.
“Welcome to the world of Agentic Finance (AiFi). That’s what Coinbase is building,” he wrote.