AI agents in focus as crypto companies target a second on-chain demand cycle
The infrastructure thesis driving crypto's current build phase has a new angle in focus. Crypto companies are working to position AI agents as the next wave of users, a bid to construct a second growth engine that would reduce the sector's exposure to the retail participation cycles that have historically defined demand.
Key takeaways
- Crypto companies are working to position AI agents as a new class of on-chain users to build a second growth engine that reduces the sector's reliance on retail participation cycles.
- AI agents are framed as software programs that sign transactions and settle payments on-chain without a human in the approval chain, transacting at machine speed.
- Building for agents requires infrastructure below the application layer, including settlement rails and fee structures suited to high-frequency automated activity.
- Agent-driven demand disperses activity across the protocol level rather than clustering around consumer applications with recognizable front ends, changing on-chain metrics and settlement load profiles.
- The build activity currently has no definitive agreement or named company attached, with adoption at the infrastructure layer being the confirmable milestone to watch.
The infrastructure thesis driving crypto's current build phase has a new angle in focus. Crypto companies are working to position AI agents as the next wave of users, a bid to construct a second growth engine that would reduce the sector's exposure to the retail participation cycles that have historically defined demand.
The agent-as-user thesis
Agents, in this framing, are on-chain actors: software programs that sign transactions and settle payments without a human in the approval chain. The demand story crypto has historically pitched relied on adoption waves among retail participants. The agent model rewrites that calculus entirely.
Programs transacting at machine speed could generate on-chain volume at a cadence retail cycles have not delivered consistently. The key management model looks different when the account holder is a process rather than a person. So does the signing flow. Building for agents requires infrastructure that sits below the application layer, not above it.
The "infrastructure era" label is deliberate. Settlement rails and fee structures suited to high-frequency automated activity are the assets in focus for companies chasing this second engine.
What the demand shift implies for the tape
The conventional demand model priced in human users. Exchange volumes and wallet activations both assume a person on one side of the activity. Agent-driven demand changes that assumption. How on-chain metrics will reflect machine-originated activity is an open question for the setup.
This is also a distribution story. Human users cluster around consumer applications with recognizable front ends. Agents interact at the protocol level and disperse demand across a wider surface of on-chain activity. Settlement layers built around human-speed interaction face different load profiles when the user base operates continuously.
The bet crypto companies are making is structural. The second growth engine is positioned to capture a user class that does not time market entries or wait for sentiment cycles to turn.
What to watch
The confirmable milestone is adoption at the infrastructure layer. Protocol specifications and wallet standards built for agent-controlled addresses are the filing-stage events to track. The build activity does not yet carry a definitive agreement or named company attached to the reporting. The direction is set: the next user the sector is building for may operate entirely in software.
Related reading
Filed by the digital assets desk of MarketPR on August 9, 2026. Source: cnbc.com. Indicative figures are not investment advice.