Tether CEO predicts one trillion AI agents will use Bitcoin and USDT for transactions within 15 years

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino expects an explosion of machine-to-machine commerce and says the USDT stablecoin and Bitcoin will sit at its center.

Speaking on The Block’s Big Brain podcast, Ardoino predicted that one trillion AI agents will eventually use blockchain-based assets to settle trades within 15 years.

"I believe that in the future, every single AI agent will have a wallet, and it should be a self-custodial wallet. We are going to have one trillion agents in 15 years," Ardoino said, adding that it's unlikely legacy financial service providers like JPMorgan would onboard autonomous bots as customers.

AI agents are autonomous software bots that will be able to interact with other machines without human oversight. Observers see these bots as vital to a maturing digital economy. Many expect AI agents to dominate online activity and to rely on cryptocurrencies as a means of exchange.

Ardoino pointed to Tether’s wallet-development kit (WDK), launched last November, as a ready tool for non-custodial integration.

"I don't think JPMorgan will open a bank account for any AI agent. So I think AI agents will use stablecoins and use Bitcoin to transact," Ardoino told The Block. He argued that USDT makes the most sense because traders already use it more than any other digital currency.

A study last year by the U.S. Treasury Department noted that most crypto transaction volume flows through stablecoin pairs. There are over $243 billion worth of U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoins currently in circulation, The Block's data shows. More than half of that amount is dominated by Tether's USDT, with an over $155 billion market cap.

Ardoino's predictions come amid a critical moment for the sector as the U.S. Congress considers two stablecoin bills, which could pass by the end of the summer. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said clear stablecoin rules could push the sector’s value above $2 trillion by 2028.

Meanwhile, Tether has already pushed into artificial intelligence. The firm, which recently opened a headquarters in El Salvador, launched Tether Data in April 2024 to foster the development of open-source AI models. In May, the company unveiled Tether AI, which will "enable an unstoppable peer-to-peer network of billions of AI agents," Ardoino said at the time.