Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong pushed back on the idea that crypto companies should “pivot to AI,” calling the advice a case of “zero sum, scarcity thinking” in a tweet.

Crypto is a general-purpose technology, he argued—”infrastructure, the same way electricity or the internet is”—that doesn’t compete with the next big thing “because it underpins it.” The AI “megatrend” doesn’t detract from crypto, he said, arguing that it “makes crypto more important.”

Armstrong is responding to a wave of crypto firms reorienting around AI, with Bitcoin miners shifting focus to AI infrastructure and digital asset treasury firms switching gears to AI as investment firms prioritize the emerging technology. Armstrong argued…