CZ Sees Crypto As The Payment Rail For AI

Crypto as the Native Layer for Machine Payments

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (@cz_binance) says AI agents could become one of the most powerful drivers of crypto adoption the industry has seen. Speaking to Galaxy Research, Zhao argued that autonomous AI systems will increasingly depend on crypto wallets and blockchain infrastructure, precisely because traditional financial rails are not built for them.

The reasoning is structural. AI agents are software. They cannot satisfy the identity verification requirements that banks impose on account holders. Crypto wallets, which require only a private key to open and operate, carry no such requirement, meaning an agent holding a crypto wallet can send and receive value without any human identity attached to the transaction.

Zhao has argued that traditional banks lack the structural capacity to support an economy where AI agents transact autonomously at scale, describing a near-future scenario where autonomous systems execute microtransactions continuously, generating volumes and speeds legacy banking infrastructure cannot accommodate. Crypto networks, he said, were built for exactly that kind of environment.

The scale Zhao envisions is significant. He has said AI agents will make one million times as many payments as humans, and they will use crypto. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, he stated that "the native currency for AI agents is going to be crypto," forecasting that over time crypto will become the main medium of digital value exchange for these programmes.

Financial Inclusion as a Second Tailwind

Beyond machine-to-machine payments, Zhao also pointed to the unbanked population as a key opportunity for permissionless payment systems. The World Bank estimates that about 1.4 billion people remain unbanked as of 2024, with transactions in these communities, particularly in low-income and emerging markets, often remaining informal. Zhao argued that open, permissionless networks could unlock broader participation in the global economy for this group.

Built on decentralized blockchain networks, crypto enables secure, low-cost, peer-to-peer transactions without intermediaries, making it a practical alternative for populations that lack access to conventional banking services.

The broader industry appears to share the conviction. In 2025, investors put over $565 million into startups at the intersection of AI and crypto, a 16 percent increase from 2024, according to data from DefiLlama. Bitwise estimates that the convergence of crypto and AI could add $20 trillion to global GDP by 2030.

Sources:
Crypto Economy: Changpeng Zhao Says Traditional Banks Cannot Handle the AI Agent Economy
Yahoo Finance: Why CZ and Industry Leaders Say AI Will Transform Crypto
Insurance Edge: Crypto and DeFi Offer Financial Inclusion for the Globally Unbanked