The modern financial system was never designed for machines. It was built around the constraints of human life: geography, sleep cycles, paperwork, and physical presence. But as AI agents begin to act as economic participants, that human-centric design is starting to look less like a feature, and more like a bottleneck, said the co-founder of crypto firm Alchemy.

“You can argue that crypto was built for AI agents, not humans,” said Alchemy CEO and co-founder Nikil Viswanathan.

The mismatch is everywhere. Banks have operating hours because humans do. Payments are tied to countries because people live in them. Credit cards assume physical identity and presence, he said.

AI agents operate differently. They don’t sleep. They don’t…