AI agents could become a new source of activity in the digital asset sector, ranging from payments to trading and lending. The benefits of this will be unevenly distributed among market participants, according to Max Waddington, senior analyst at Fidelity Digital Assets.
Increased Use of AI by Developers
Fidelity studied data from over 100,000 GitHub developers. The use of digital assistants for programming increased the number of commits by up to 180% and the number of releases by 30%.
Waddington noted that such tools allow small teams to create and launch blockchain applications more quickly. However, in financial and other critical software, code still requires manual review.
A similar trend was observed within the crypto industry itself. In 2026, amid declining digital asset prices, both the number of developers and the volume of commits decreased, although the latter fell more slowly. As a result, the average number of changes per developer continued to rise.
However, the increase in the number of applications does not guarantee their success. Projects still need users, liquidity, regulatory compliance, and trust. According to Waddington, as development costs decrease, these factors will become more prominent.
AI Agents to Operate On-Chain
Autonomous AI agents could further drive activity in the sector. They can independently conduct payments, trade assets, provide liquidity, and issue and take loans.
Blockchains are suitable for such operations due to their 24/7 availability, programmable settlements, and the ability to perform microtransactions without human intervention.
This market is already taking shape. According to Keyrock, by May, AI agents had conducted over 176 million transactions totaling more than $73 million. About 98.6% of these operations involved the stablecoin USDC.
Infrastructure for such scenarios is also developing. One of the most active participants is the exchange Coinbase, which previously launched the x402 protocol for automatic internet payments and later introduced Coinbase for Agents, a set of tools for trading and settlements using AI.
Nevertheless, Fidelity does not expect all agent operations to transition to public blockchains. Banks, fintech companies, and traditional players are developing their own solutions, leveraging established customer bases, infrastructure, and access to credit products.
Analysts believe AI agents will likely operate across multiple platforms, choosing based on cost and convenience.
Transaction Growth Doesn’t Guarantee Revenue Growth
Even if AI attracts millions of new operations to blockchains, it won’t necessarily lead to a proportional increase in network revenue.
Experts cited payments as an example: their number may grow rapidly, but the fee per transaction remains low. Such operations can also be bundled, conducted off the main network, or moved to cheaper L2 solutions.
Much more significant revenue is generated by capital operations. According to Fidelity’s calculations, over the past 180 days, trading has brought Ethereum’s base layer 49 times more revenue per dollar of volume than payments. Additional income is also generated through MEV.
This is why analysts see greater potential in AI agents that will trade, lend, borrow, and provide liquidity. In the event of widespread adoption of automatic payments, the main beneficiaries could be stablecoin issuers and infrastructure providers, rather than native blockchain tokens.
In March, Bernstein specialists called digital assistants the future of stablecoins. Later, Franklin Templeton noted that AI agents could become a driver for crypto payments.
