--- title: "Pantera: A New Wave of Technological Convergence is Coming – Why AI Needs Blockchain" type: "News" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/288346415.md" description: "Pantera Capital argues that AI and blockchain are converging, with AI generating abundant supply and blockchain providing scarce ownership. This synergy supports autonomous AI agents requiring machine-native financial systems for on-chain transactions via stablecoins. Pantera believes the market undervalues crypto assets relative to AI, predicting that future economic transactions driven by intelligent agents will primarily occur on blockchain infrastructure." datetime: "2026-06-02T01:16:57.000Z" locales: - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/288346415.md) - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/288346415.md) - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/288346415.md) --- # Pantera: A New Wave of Technological Convergence is Coming – Why AI Needs Blockchain Author: Paul Veradittakit, Managing Partner, Pantera Capital; Translated by: Shaw, Jinse Finance - Artificial intelligence and blockchain are achieving technological convergence around four pillars: payment, identity authentication, open systems, and resource aggregation. All four areas have already been commercially implemented, and Pantera Capital's portfolio companies have a deep presence in all four sectors. The underlying logic of the two is naturally aligned: \*\*Artificial intelligence represents abundant supply\*\* (massive content, infinite intelligent agents), while \*\*blockchain represents scarce ownership\*\* (verifiable ownership, native settlement system); the former is responsible for value generation, while the latter completes authentication and payment. The current market has not yet priced in this convergence logic. Pantera's index of ten leading AI companies shows that despite the deep integration of the two technologies, the valuation divergence between AI and crypto asset sectors has reached historical extremes. AI intelligent agents will not open bank accounts, use the Federal Reserve's wire transfer system (Fedwire), or rely on the Automated Clearing House (ACH) for interbank clearing; they will complete transactions on-chain using stablecoins at machine-level speed. The underlying financial channel upon which the intelligent agent economy operates is precisely the track that most institutional investors have not yet entered. It's understandable that global capital is currently focused on artificial intelligence (AI), but AI is only half the picture of industrial transformation. A groundbreaking technological convergence is quietly taking shape at the intersection of AI and blockchain. Massive amounts of capital are pouring into primary and secondary AI stocks, pushing the valuations of leading AI companies into overbought territory. Conversely, crypto assets, compared to this round of long-term technological transformation, are still severely undervalued. The real industrial dividends do not come from a single technology, but from the mutual empowerment of the two. For many years, the market has regarded AI and crypto as two independent super tracks, but in essence, they are two sides of the same round of industrial transformation. AI is giving rise to new economic entities: autonomous intelligent agents (AI Agents). These entities need to hold assets, circulate value, and collaborate on a large scale. Blockchain-based cryptographic infrastructure is the only financial and collaborative foundation built from scratch and designed specifically for non-human transaction entities. Robots and intelligent agents have already become native participants in blockchain networks; therefore, we predict that the vast majority of future economic transactions driven by intelligent agents will be implemented on-chain. Technological integration is one of Pantera's most confident research and investment themes, and the institution is investing significant human and financial resources in its in-depth development. What History Tells Us: Looking at the history of industrial development, every major economic leap has been born from the collision of two core technologies: steam engine + railway, electricity + manufacturing, and the internet + smartphone. Each disruptive capability, coupled with supporting infrastructure, has given rise to entirely new economic entities and enduring leading companies. AI brings near-infinite supply: The marginal cost of computing power, digital content, intelligent agents, and digital identity approaches zero; blockchain anchors deterministic scarcity: verifiable property rights, trustless collaboration, and cryptographic facts. As Dan Morehead and Cosmo Jiang stated in their latest blockchain research report on Pantera, the two fields have highly overlapping talent pools (both rooted in mathematics and open-source ecosystems), and their underlying philosophies complement each other: AI creates infinite abundance, while blockchain locks in finite scarcity. Application Scenarios of This Integrated Technology: AI intelligent agents cannot exist without a machine-native financial system. The current financial system is designed around human users, with low processing efficiency, access controlled by permissions, and a high dependence on centralized intermediaries. We are entering a new era, and the market needs underlying infrastructure to support a new type of entity—AI intelligent agents. Blockchain is a highly efficient solution capable of large-scale implementation. ### Trading and Payment Some companies have already proven the feasibility of this model. Our portfolio project, OpenFX, uses stablecoins as its settlement underlying and has achieved an annualized transaction volume (TPV) exceeding $60 billion. The company explicitly states that the next wave of massive users will not be natural persons, but software programs. It is projected that within ten years, AI intelligent agents will become the primary participants in forex trading.Intelligent agents do not need bank accounts, nor do they need Fedwire or SWIFT. They require low-cost, near-instantaneous clearing, barrier-free access, 24/7 operation, and programmatic settlement support—which is precisely the core advantage of blockchain.Intelligent agents do not need bank accounts, nor do they need Fedwire or SWIFT. They require low-cost, near-instantaneous clearing, barrier-free access, 24/7 operation, and programmatic settlement support—and this is precisely the core advantage of blockchain. Let's look at another leading company in this field, Alchemy. Hailed as the AWS of Web3, it's a core platform supporting the development of next-generation AI + cryptographic applications. From agent-specific wallets to on-chain execution layers, Alchemy significantly lowers the barrier for developers to build the necessary infrastructure for agents. The Urgent Need for Identity and Personality Verification In the current era of rampant AI agents and synthetic content, distinguishing between natural persons, machine programs, and AI-generated content has become a necessity. Traditional identity systems such as passports, government records, and bank cards serve human interaction in centralized scenarios and are unsuitable for new business models. Globally, there is an urgent need for an internet identity verification solution that relies on cryptography, balances privacy protection, and resists censorship; blockchain perfectly meets all these requirements. Pantera's investment project, World (formerly Worldcoin), is a benchmark in this field. It leverages Proof of Personhood technology to build a global, privacy-focused identity and financial network, using cryptography to prove that users are unique, authentic natural persons. Users complete iris scanning verification using the World Orb biometric device; upon successful verification, they receive a World ID, and their identity information is stored hash-encrypted on the Worldchain public blockchain. Currently, World has completed verification for over 18 million unique natural person users, ranking among the top five most active public blockchains globally. Sam Altman, who co-founded Project World during his tenure at OpenAI, foresaw that his company's AI technology would give rise to a series of identity authentication challenges. We also invested in TransCrypts, a project building a blockchain foundation for autonomous sovereign identity and verifiable credentials. Users can fully own ownership of various verification files such as employment, income, and qualifications on the chain. This system effectively resists AI fraud, deepfakes, and synthetic identity attacks. In a future environment where intelligent agents are ubiquitous, programmable trust has become an industry standard. The AI ​​market is overvalued, while crypto assets are undervalued. The valuation of the AI ​​sector has soared, while the crypto market has entered a correction phase, creating a historically valuable comparative investment opportunity. As of May 2026, the mainstream AI index was approximately 49% higher than its four-year trend line; Bitcoin's price, on the other hand, had fallen approximately 42% from its own long-term trend line. Despite the deep integration of AI with the underlying cryptographic infrastructure (AI agents will ultimately rely on cryptographic infrastructure to operate), the valuation divergence between the two has reached an all-time high. The competition for investment and financing in the intersection of AI and blockchain is becoming increasingly fierce. Pantera has been deeply involved in blockchain investment for over 13 years. Leveraging its long-term industry experience, extensive industrial resources, and the ability to analyze patterns across multiple cycles, we possess a genuine competitive advantage in identifying and securing high-quality projects. BlackRock executive Robbie Mitchnick recently emphasized that AI agents will not use traditional banking infrastructure, but instead will rely on blockchain-based financial instruments. Cryptocurrencies are machine-native currencies tailored for the machine intelligence economy. To entrepreneurs: Your time has come. To developers deeply involved in the industry: The convergence of these two technologies is not a distant prospect, but a reality. The underlying infrastructure required by AI agents is something that traditional financial architecture was never designed for from its inception. They require an identity system that can verify the identity and various attributes of natural persons without centralized control, verifiable credentials, programmable currency, and developer infrastructure that treats intelligent agents as native entities. The infrastructure sector is rapidly maturing, with representative projects including Alchemy, World, TransCrypts, and OpenFX. The regulatory environment continues to improve, and capital is gradually recognizing the sector's comparative investment value. If you are investing in areas such as: agent-native finance, decentralized identity, on-chain verifiable AI results, and on-chain collaboration of autonomous systems, now is the optimal window of opportunity. 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