Alchemy CEO Nikil Viswanathan Says AI Agents Will Drive the Future of Commerce in Crypto-Native Systems

Alchemy CEO Nikil Viswanathan argues the global financial system was designed for humans, but the next wave of commerce will be driven by AI agents that operate natively in crypto.

Viswanathan stated that the modern financial system was built around the constraints of human life, including geography, sleep cycles, paperwork, and physical presence, which creates bottlenecks for AI agents that do not sleep, do not live in specific locations, and do not carry physical identification.

He explained that AI agents operate differently from humans, conducting all transactions online and inherently global, making crypto’s borderless, continuous, and fully digital nature a better fit for machine-driven commerce.

According to Viswanathan, complexity such as private keys and code is not a barrier for AI agents but a feature, as they are designed to handle cryptographic operations natively without the need for simplified interfaces.

AI agents will sit on top of crypto rails to handle transactions, while humans interact through simpler interfaces, allowing machines to participate directly in economic activity without relying on legacy financial infrastructure built for human behavior.

Viswanathan made these remarks in an interview with CoinDesk published on April 25, 2026, ahead of his scheduled appearance at Consensus Miami the following month, where he was set to speak on the topic.

The shift toward AI agents as economic participants represents a departure from the current financial system, which was not designed for machines and may increasingly hinder autonomous digital actors as their role in commerce expands.