AI Agents Need Crypto to Work in Financial Markets, Says Coinbase Executive
John D’Agostino, head of institutional strategy at Coinbase, explained this vision during a CNBC interview on September 30, 2025. He argued that asking AI agents to work with century-old financial systems makes no sense in today’s fast-paced digital world.
The Dial-Up Modem Problem
D’Agostino used a simple comparison to explain the issue. He said trying to run AI agents on traditional financial systems is like trying to stream a movie on a dial-up modem. It just doesn’t work.
“If we’re going to move to this world and have this wonderful advantage of these agents acting at infinitely fast speeds, they have to act on infinitely fast and scalable money rails. And that’s what blockchain and crypto is,” D’Agostino told…
