Chappy Asel, an ex-Apple engineer and founder of The AI Collective, asserts that the integration of AI into the crypto industry is more about establishing financial systems for autonomous agents than about chatbots. At Consensus Miami, Asel highlighted that as software agents increasingly make economic choices on behalf of users and businesses, they necessitate payment systems capable of low-latency, scalable transactions. “When agents dominate financial decision-making, how do they transact with one another?” he queried during a panel discussion. “Such processes should be systematic, mechanistic, involving microtransactions and minimal latency.” Asel, who worked on Apple’s Vision Pro and early AI initiatives before starting The AI Collective, discussed the convergence of crypto and AI from a practical standpoint.
“The primary thing I’ve heard repeatedly at this conference—even among friends familiar with AI but not blockchain—is agentic payments,” Asel noted. Stablecoins enable 24/7 settlement, while smart contracts facilitate programmable execution, making their integration the logical step for mainstreaming agentic payments without human intervention.
However, the concept remains in its infancy, with many companies still depending on centralized APIs and traditional payment systems. Efforts to develop “agentic payments” infrastructure have yet to generate significant commercial activity, indicating that this narrative might be advancing faster than actual demand.
Asel suggested that while machine-to-machine commerce may take time to establish itself, the overlap between crypto and AI could manifest in other areas sooner. He remarked, “Many claim models aren’t adequate; it’s not that—it’s about compute power, data centers, and energy driving AI decisions now.” This perspective aligns with a broader shift where access to chips, power, and data center capacity is becoming crucial for competitive advantage.
Parts of the crypto industry are already capitalizing on this trend. Many bitcoin miners have transitioned toward AI hosting and high-performance computing over the past year, leveraging infrastructure initially developed for mining to accommodate AI workloads.
For founders navigating these uncertainties, Asel advised a straightforward approach: experimentation. “In an increasingly uncertain world, things will only intensify,” he said. “This calls for more time spent exploring new technologies.” Crypto’s user adoption issues have long been tied to usability challenges. Yet, AI agents do not require onboarding tutorials, are unfazed by MetaMask, or need to remember seed phrases. If autonomous software becomes a significant economic player, crypto might find a user base that naturally operates in code.