In 2026, AI agents emerged as a new trend within the artificial intelligence industry. These programs, capable of narrowing AI’s vast capabilities to perform a specific set of tasks, proved particularly in demand in the cryptocurrency market.
Any code can be written and deployed in this market, which explains why 2.3 million AI agents are currently operating in the crypto industry. While this segment was valued at $7.84 billion in 2025, analysts now expect it to grow to $52.62 billion by 2030.
Conversely, crypto gateways designed specifically to process digital currency transactions are not widely implementing AI agents. Industry leaders such as BitPay, CoinGate, NOWPayments and Plisio are busy adapting their businesses to comply with new regulations such as MiCA and the GENIUS Act. The only exceptions are Stripe, which has integrated x402 USDC payments into the Base and Cryptomus networks, and Cryptomus, which has launched the Aikeedo Marketplace plugin.
The situation is completely different for crypto wallets. Coinbase has launched Agentic Wallets — the first infrastructure built specifically for AI agents. Meanwhile, Cobo has launched the world’s first agent wallet based on MPC technology for secure storage and enforced autonomy. MoonPay has launched a software layer that gives AI agents access to crypto wallets. Its first client was Ledger.
Analysts believe that, over the next two years, crypto gateways without support for autonomous operations will gradually lose volume as the adoption of AI agents grows. While they were working to make crypto payments more convenient for people, a different type of market has emerged alongside it where the payer is an AI agent.