Coinbase CEO: AI Will Make Cryptocurrency More Important, Building Agentic Finance

Odaily Planet Daily reports that Brian Armstrong posted on X: “If you’re in crypto, shift to AI” is a flawed worldview—it reflects zero-sum, scarcity thinking. Cryptocurrency is a general-purpose technology and infrastructure, similar to electricity or the internet; it does not compete with the next big thing but enables it. The rise of AI will not diminish cryptocurrency; rather, it will make cryptocurrency more essential. AI agents will require their own financial infrastructure, with daily transaction volumes that will far exceed the combined total of all humans. AI agents cannot open bank accounts, cannot wait three days for wire transfers, and are not confined to a single country—they need real-time programmable money. AI agents will need to hold their own funds and pay fees autonomously. Coinbase has been exploring this direction through the x402 protocol, Base, and USDC, and these technologies currently underpin the vast majority of agentic payments. AI agents will also engage in trading and act as financial advisors, raising or borrowing capital for new projects, and handling tasks such as tax planning, portfolio rebalancing, and bill payments. Brian Armstrong calls this Agentic Finance, or AiFi—and Coinbase is building it.