At the World Economic Forum in Davos, leaders from Binance, Circle, and Coinbase expressed optimism about AI's role in reshaping cryptocurrency. They predict crypto will become the native currency for AI agents, driving massive economic growth. Investments in AI-crypto startups surged in 2025, signaling strong industry momentum.
Changpeng Zhao, former CEO of Binance, spoke at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday, stating, “The native currency for AI agents is going to be crypto.” He envisions crypto evolving into the primary medium for digital value exchange among these autonomous systems, which independently plan and execute tasks like booking flights or managing investments.
This view is widely shared. Bitwise projects that integrating AI with crypto could boost global GDP by $20 trillion by 2030. Investment data from DefiLlama shows over $565 million poured into related startups in 2025, up 16% from 2024.
Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire echoed the enthusiasm, forecasting “billions” of AI agents handling economic transactions within three to five years. He noted, “The next generation of blockchain networks are being designed specifically for agentic compute,” during his WEF remarks.
Coinbase's investment research lead, David Duong, described the AI-crypto convergence earlier in January as “a fundamental shift towards the next stage of technological progress.” He added that economists underestimate AI's productivity gains, as “AI is increasing the speed and efficiency of our workforce in a way that isn’t being fully captured by official statistics.”
Venture firm Andreessen Horowitz anticipates AI agents revolutionizing payments, banking, and prediction markets by 2026. Analysts Christian Crowley and Pyrs Carvolth highlighted how “a smart contract can already settle a dollar payment globally in seconds,” enabling agents to exchange data, GPU time, or API calls instantly without traditional processes. They foresee prediction markets where trades and payouts occur globally in seconds, free from custodians. Analyst Maggie Hsu emphasized enhanced wealth management, stating, “This is more than just robo advisors; everyone can access active portfolio management, not just passive management.”
Overall, these leaders see AI and crypto merging to streamline global finance.
