Galaxy Digital CEO Michael Novogratz predicts AI agents will drive a surge in stablecoin use
Envisions AI handling daily purchases and settling them via stablecoins instead of banks or apps
Dollar-pegged tokens dominate today, but yuan-pegged stablecoins could reshape cross-border flows
Stablecoins’ instant, programmable settlement suits automated spending and micropayments
Stablecoins and AI agents are set to become tightly linked in the near future, Michael Novogratz, founder and CEO of crypto investor Galaxy Digital, said on Wednesday. He predicted that AI-driven automation of everyday purchases will drive a major surge in stablecoin transactions within the next few years.
Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Asia Leaders Conference in Hong Kong, Novogratz painted a scenario in which personal AI agents order groceries, pay vendors and settle micro-transactions over crypto rails, not by bank wires or P2P apps, but by sending stablecoins.
“In the not-so-distant future the biggest user of stablecoins is going to be AI,” he said, estimating the shift could arrive in “one year or five years.”
New Use Case for Digital Cash
Novogratz suggested that as AI agents become capable of handling routine purchasing decisions, from shopping lists to vendor selection based on dietary preferences and price, stablecoins will be the natural payment instrument because they combine digital-rail speed with fiat parity. That, he argued, will trigger “an explosion of stablecoin transactions” as automated services proliferate.
Industry data and recent policy moves provide context to Novogratz’s forecast. The stablecoin market has ballooned from single-digit billions a few years ago to hundreds of billions in circulation today, and consulting firms have modelled potential growth into the trillions as institutional adoption and cross-border use cases expand.
Regulators globally, from the United States to Hong Kong, are increasingly formalising rules for stablecoins, a development market participants say could accelerate trust and institutional integration.
Dollar vs Yuan
Novogratz also flagged a geopolitical angle: countries are exploring currency-pegged stablecoins to boost cross-border settlement roles for their national currencies.
He suggested China is likely to press ahead with yuan-pegged initiatives while current market dominance remains with dollar-pegged tokens, a dynamic that could reshape which rails AI agents use internationally.
If AI agents routinely execute purchases on behalf of users, payments will need to be instant, programmable and widely accepted. Stablecoins can provide low-latency settlement and smart-contract compatibility, features that make them attractive for automated spending, machine-to-machine commerce and micropayments that traditional rails handle poorly or expensively.
Risks & Hurdles Ahead
Novogratz’s thesis is not without obstacles: stablecoin scale raises regulatory, custody and anti-money-laundering concerns; payment privacy and consumer protection questions will grow as AI agents gain spending power; and cross-jurisdictional rules for programmable money remain unsettled.
Moreover, whether consumers accept AI agents making autonomous purchases, and prefer stablecoin settlement, will be crucial.
Market participants will monitor three signals- growth in stablecoin transaction volumes and on-chain activity tied to merchant payouts, regulatory frameworks that permit or restrict programmable, automated payments, and commercial tie-ups between AI-agent platforms, payment processors and stablecoin issuers. If those move in concert, Novogratz’s predicted “explosion” of transactions could materialise faster than skeptics expect.
Novogratz argues the convergence of AI agents and programmable digital cash could be the transformational use case that pushes stablecoins from trading-market utility into everyday payment rails, a shift with broad implications for finance, commerce and regulation.
