AI and Crypto Convergence: What Happens After the Speculation Fades
Artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency have spent the past several years sharing headlines, often fueled by soaring token prices and ambitious promises. But beneath the speculation, many industry leaders argue that the real transformation is happening elsewhere.
More than a dozen founders, chief technology officers, financial professionals and blockchain executives who responded to The FINANCIAL’s questions described an industry increasingly focused on infrastructure rather than hype. Their answers point to a future shaped by decentralized computing, autonomous software agents, stronger cybersecurity and regulatory clarity—not by the next speculative token.
Beyond the Hype: AI’s Real Role in Crypto
One theme emerged repeatedly: the most meaningful intersection between AI and blockchain is not consumer-facing applications but the systems that allow machines to transact with one another.
Runbo Li, CEO of Magic Hour AI, dismisses tokenized chatbots as a distraction.
“The AI-crypto convergence that actually matters isn’t tokenizing chatbots. It’s decentralized compute markets,” he said. “Any protocol that lets someone with idle GPUs sell compute to someone who needs inference, with crypto handling the payment rails and verification, that’s infrastructure with staying power.”
RUTAO XU, Founder & COO of TAOAPEX LTD, sees a similar evolution from the software perspective.
“Beyond speculation, the greatest long-term potential lies in decentralized compute marketplaces and autonomous software agents managing transactions securely.”
Ace Zhuo, CEO of TradingFXVPS, argues that cryptocurrency solves a problem traditional payment systems were never designed for.
“Machine-to-machine (m2m) micropayments for per API call/inference executed by an AI agent can only be done with programmable money,” he said, pointing to “compute markets for decentralized GPU rental and verifiable training data” as the near-term winners.
Vitaliy Kononov, Co-Founder & CTO of Atty, is unconvinced by projects that simply attach an AI label to existing crypto products.
“Many crypto projects with an AI tag seem to me like buzzword combinations, rather than solutions,” he said. What excites him instead are “autonomous software agents capable of doing transactions independently, including paying for compute resources, calling APIs, moving data, coordinating themselves without constant human involvement.”
Yousuf Rizvi, CPA and Principal at Ridgeway Financial Services, says elements of that future are already emerging among startup clients.
“We are seeing startups give AI agents a working balance in stablecoin or crypto with scoped authority to autonomously deploy it,” he said. “The agent purchases compute, pays for data, transacts with other agents, or settles obligations on behalf of the business.”
The Weakest Link Is Increasingly Human
While blockchain protocols continue to mature, several experts argued that cybersecurity risks have shifted away from software vulnerabilities and toward operational failures and human behavior.
Brian McGahan, four-time CCIE and Co-Founder of INE, believes security teams are struggling to keep pace with AI-powered attackers.
“AI-powered systems are currently finding more vulnerabilities than engineering teams can realistically validate and fix,” he said. “Attackers are exploiting this by using autonomous AI to scan for exposed APIs and cloud misconfigurations, leading to multi-stage credential theft and infrastructure compromise.”
Shawn Riley, Co-Founder of BISBLOX, pointed to the growing financial toll.
“TRM Labs reported $2.87 billion stolen across nearly 150 crypto hacks and exploits in 2025, with attackers increasingly moving ‘up the stack’ into keys and control systems.” His diagnosis: “The biggest cybersecurity risk today is no longer just bad smart contract code. It is operational compromise.”
Jeff Barroga, Digital Marketing Officer at Acquire.Fi, highlighted a deceptively simple tactic that continues to succeed.
“Malicious actors are embedding scam URLs inside what looks like a completely legitimate link,” he said. “One wrong click and you’ve handed over your wallet credentials and personal data to someone you’ll never trace.”
For Mihail B., Founder of Sweepbase, which tracks 141 crypto debit and credit cards, the threat lies in infrastructure concentration rather than hacking alone.
“The underrated one isn’t exchange hacks, it’s infrastructure concentration,” he said. “A handful of e-money institutions issue a large share of Europe’s crypto cards, and when one loses its license the damage cascades.”
He cited two examples.
“Poland’s KNF revoking a single issuer’s license this January took down card payments for CEX.IO’s program; Lithuania revoking Paytend’s in March killed BingX’s cards. Users did nothing wrong either time.”
Rethinking the Fear of Missing Bitcoin
Despite Bitcoin’s dramatic appreciation over the past decade, several respondents challenged the notion that retail investors have permanently missed the opportunity.
Colin Reed MBA, Independent Consultant at Modern Wealth Consulting, believes the larger mistake is psychological.
“The framing ‘I missed it’ is the single most expensive mental model in this space,” he said. “The mistake I see most often is treating Bitcoin as a binary — either 100% conviction or 0% allocation — when the math actually rewards a position size you can sit with for decades.”
Andrew Kamsky, Founder & Bitcoin Researcher at Coinjuice, pointed to on-chain data supporting continued retail participation.
“Retail did not miss Bitcoin,” he said. “Wallets holding between 1 million and 10 million satoshis grew from 850,678 addresses in 2015 to 8.3 million in 2026 while price rose 235x.”
His advice to investors chasing the next cryptocurrency was straightforward.
“Most people who start in alts end up in Bitcoin anyway after losing money. Secure the cohort first.”
Pranjal Kukreja, CEO of Optima Bags, also emphasized that the industry’s long-term value lies beyond speculative trading.
“The strongest long-term use cases I see are in decentralized data marketplaces — where AI models can be trained on verified datasets without centralizing ownership — and in autonomous smart contract execution triggered by AI agents,” he said. “These create real utility that doesn’t depend on token price movement.”
Crypto Is Increasingly Part of the Broader Financial System
Several respondents said cryptocurrency markets no longer operate independently of traditional finance.
Thomas Prommer, Group CEO of We The Flywheel, summarized the shift.
“Crypto now trades like a high-beta tech asset, tied to rate policy and liquidity.”
Josh Heine, Content Strategist at Simple Mining, reached a similar conclusion.
“Way more sensitive. Once the ETFs and companies holding it on their balance sheets showed up, it started moving with rates and liquidity like everything else.”
Colin Reed offered a more nuanced interpretation.
“Materially more sensitive on the short timeframe; effectively less sensitive on the long one,” he said. “Five years ago, Bitcoin traded mostly on retail flows and crypto-native narratives. Today it trades alongside long-duration tech and treasury yields, which is what you’d expect from an asset that’s now sitting on institutional balance sheets and inside spot ETFs.”
Regulation Takes Center Stage
When asked what could have the greatest impact on crypto markets over the next year, regulation dominated nearly every response, though experts focused on different jurisdictions and policies.
Alberto Gulotta, Founder & Finance Publisher at Vextor Capital, described stablecoin regulation as the defining issue.
“The single biggest variable” for the year ahead is stablecoin regulation. “Clear rules would pull settlement volume on-chain at scale; a restrictive regime would push the same activity offshore. Most other outcomes are downstream of that decision,” he said.
Federico Spitaleri, CEO and Founder of PostWizard AI, is closely watching developments in Washington.
“The key development which will have the greatest influence on the crypto markets over the next 12 months is the possibility of the CLARITY act passing the full Senate,” he said, noting the bill “provides a legislative solution defining digital commodities and specifying the division of jurisdiction between the SEC and the CFTC.”
Jeff Barroga pointed instead to Europe, where implementation deadlines are already reshaping the industry.
“MiCA’s transitional window closes a week from now on July 1, 2026,” he said. “Any crypto platform serving EU clients after that date without a MiCA license is in violation of EU law.”
He added that compliance has become a driving force behind consolidation.
“Large crypto platforms are rushing to acquire entities that already hold MiCA licenses because building from scratch takes too long. The M&A activity we’re seeing right now is almost entirely compliance-driven.”
Mihail B. believes regulators are signaling a tougher approach.
“2026 has already shown regulators will revoke licenses, not just issue fines,” he said. “Fewer, better-capitalized e-money institutions will survive, and that consolidation will decide which crypto payment products still exist in 2027, far more than any price move.”
Runbo Li views regulatory clarity in the United States as a catalyst for institutional participation rather than a prediction about prices.
“The moment allocators have a compliance-friendly path, trillions in institutional money has permission to move,” he said. “That’s not a prediction about price. It’s a prediction about participation.”
