Armstrong argues that AI agents will need crypto financial rails, and the two technologies are complementary layers. His tweet responds to a wave of crypto firms pivoting to AI.
Alpha Score of 38 reflects weak overall profile with weak momentum, weak value, poor quality, strong sentiment.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong pushed back on the idea that crypto companies should pivot to artificial intelligence, calling the advice a case of “zero sum, scarcity thinking” in a tweet.
“If you’re in crypto, pivot to AI,” Armstrong wrote, quoting a version of the advice he said he used to hear. “I used to hear versions of this, and it’s the wrong way to think about the world.”
Armstrong argued that crypto is a general-purpose technology – “infrastructure, the same way electricity or the internet is” – that does not compete with the next big thing “because it underpins it.” The AI megatrend makes crypto “more important,” he said.
The response comes after a wave of crypto firms reoriented around AI. Bitcoin miners have shifted focus to AI infrastructure. Digital asset treasury firms have switched gears to AI as investment firms prioritize the emerging technology. Armstrong argued the two are complementary layers instead, with AI supplying the intelligence and crypto the money rails.
His case rests on AI agents. Armstrong said they will need “their own financial infrastructure” and will eventually transact “far more per day than all humans combined.” Unlike people, he noted, an agent cannot open a bank account, wait three days for a wire, or reside in a single country – so it will need “real time programmable money” in the form of crypto to hold funds and pay for things on its own.
From there, he sees agents trading, raising money for their own projects, and taking over human chores like tax planning and bill pay. Coinbase has leaned into the emerging “AiFi” category with its contributions to the x402 protocol and its own Base blockchain, while its USDC stablecoin already powers “the vast majority” of agentic payments, Armstrong said. The exchange has also argued that AI agents will outnumber human crypto users.
The pitch arrives after Coinbase leaned into AI itself. Earlier this year, the exchange cut 14% of its staff amid a crypto downturn, in a restructuring Armstrong cast as a drive to rebuild the company “lean, fast, and AI-native,” with “AI at our core.” Rather than choosing between the two, he framed the moment as an inflection point, arguing in an email to staff that the company was “adjusting early and deliberately to rebuild Coinbase.”
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