They book services, manage tasks, and soon, they will need to make payments. According to Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, this creates a problem that traditional finance is not ready to solve.
Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Builders and Innovators Summit in October 2025, Armstrong explained that AI agents cannot open bank accounts. They cannot pass identity checks known as KYC, short for Know Your Customer. As a result, he believes stablecoins will become the main payment tool for machine to machine transactions.
Why AI Agents Cannot Use Banks
Banks are built for humans, not software. To open an account, a user must provide documents, prove their identity, and pass compliance checks. AI agents cannot do any of that. They have no legal identity, no passport, and no address.
Yet these agents are increasingly expected to pay for things. Imagine an AI assistant that books cloud computing, pays for data access, or manages online ads in real time. In today’s system, every payment still depends on a human controlled bank account or credit card. That setup does not scale well when software is acting on its own.
Stablecoins offer a simpler path. They are digital tokens designed to hold a steady value, usually pegged to the US dollar. They can be stored in wallets, sent instantly, and used without a bank account. For an AI agent, a stablecoin wallet can act like a built in payment rail.
More About AI Agents
The AI-crypto ecosystem is evolving into a decentralized AI (DeAI) stack, with Filecoin and Arweave leading storage, Akash, Render, and Aleph driving compute, and Nillion, Zama, and Oasis enabling privacy. Model training via Nous, Gensyn, and FLock pairs with verification. From Phala, EigenLayer, and Polyhedra using ZK proofs.
This is a great overview of the whole Agentic space.
From yield agents, frameworks for AI strategies, agents launchpads and AI trading, most of the leaders are mentioned here.
Congrats to @MessariCrypto for the great work (read their latest Crypto x AI report). pic.twitter.com/XwO7YR8UZt
— Diego (@diego_defai) December 2, 2025
Coordination layers like Bittensor and Numerai incentivize performance, while agent networks (Near, Theoriq) and apps (Brave, ElizaOS) integrate on-chain payments and verifiable AI into user tools.
Disclaimer
The information provided by Altcoin Buzz is not financial advice. It is intended solely for educational, entertainment, and informational purposes. Any opinions or strategies shared are those of the writer/reviewers, and their risk tolerance may differ from yours. We are not liable for any losses you may incur from investments related to the information given. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are high-risk assets; therefore, conduct thorough due diligence. Copyright Altcoin Buzz Pte Ltd.
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