Why the Coinbase CEO thinks pivoting from crypto to AI is a mistake

Armstrong and others say autonomous software agents will eventually execute far more daily transactions than humans. Because digital programs cannot open bank accounts or wait days for wire transfers, real-time crypto and blockchain represent the only alternative.

In his post, Armstrong said Coinbase plans to anchor this ecosystem, which he dubbed Agentic Finance (AiFi). The crypto trading platform is using the x402 protocol, which it developed and is now governed by the x402 Foundation, along with its Base blockchain and Circle Internet’s USDC stablecoin to power these automated payments. Coinbase deployed AI agent accounts that can trade and spend in June. Last week, it said Coinbase Business users would be able to accept AI agent payments via x402.

However, industry builders note that moving money at machine speed requires fixing structural bottlenecks across the entire tech stack.

“Agents don’t just need money, but they need money that moves at machine speed,” said Tory Green, CEO of decentralized network io.net, on Monday in a comment on Armstrong’s post. “Our whole financial stack has evolved for the human interface. Money’s just the first rail that has to catch up. Same story coming for compute, data, all of it.”

Other developers warn that giving unvetted code direct access to financial assets exposes it to massive counterparty risk.