The AI valuation bubble is prominent, and crypto assets might be the undervalued area of this era.

Written by: Paul Veradittakit, Partner at Pantera Capital

Translated by: Saoirse, Foresight News

Content Summary

• AI and blockchain are landing and integrating around four major pillars: payment settlement, identity systems, open systems, and resource aggregation. All four tracks already have commercialized landing projects, and Pantera's portfolio companies have layouts in all areas.
• The underlying logic of both is naturally complementary: AI represents an infinite supply (massive content, endless intelligent agents), while blockchain represents the scarce attribute of rights confirmation (verifiable ownership, on-chain native settlement); the former is responsible for generating content and services, while the latter completes rights confirmation and value settlement.
• There is a significant mismatch in current market valuations: The valuations of the top ten AI companies tracked by Pantera have historically diverged the most from the valuations of crypto assets, while both industries are deeply interconnected at the core.
• AI agents will not open physical bank accounts or use federal wire transfer or ACH clearing channels; instead, they will rely on stablecoins to achieve machine-level high-speed transactions on-chain; the agent economy is being built on blockchain infrastructure, which is rarely configured by existing institutions.

Today, global capital is focused on AI, but AI is only half of the industrial transformation. A new era of technological integration is quietly taking shape at the intersection of AI and blockchain. A vast amount of capital has crowded into the primary and secondary markets, pushing AI company valuations into a bubble; in contrast, the fundamentals of the crypto sector are underestimated, yet it is a prime area for laying out the long-term technological transformation. Neither technology can thrive on its own; mutual empowerment is the core focus. For many years, the market has been accustomed to viewing AI and crypto as two independent trends, but essentially, they are two paths of the same industrial wave.

AI has spawned a new economic entity - autonomous agents. These entities need to hold assets, circulate value, and collaborate on a large scale, and crypto and blockchain are the only financial collaborative infrastructures designed from the ground up to accommodate non-human entities. Agents and programmatic robots have already become native users of blockchain. Therefore, we believe that in the future, the vast majority of transactions driven by agents will occur on-chain. The integration of AI and blockchain is one of the strongest research and investment lines for Pantera, and the team is investing substantial human and financial resources to delve into this track.

Looking at the Laws of Technological Integration from the Perspective of Industrial Development History

Historically, the collision of top technologies has often spurred leapfrog economic development: the steam engine paired with railways, electricity supporting manufacturing, and the internet combining with smartphones. Each time, the addition of new technological capabilities and supporting infrastructure has birthed entirely new economic models and evergreen enterprises.

AI enables the near-zero marginal cost scaling of intelligence, content, agents, and digital identities, leading to unlimited supply; blockchain anchors scarcity, providing verifiable asset ownership, minimal trust cost collaboration, and cryptographically secure data. As Dan Morehead and Cosmo Jiang stated in Pantera's latest blockchain report, the overlap of talent in these two types of technologies is profound (both rooted in mathematics and open-source culture), and their underlying logic is complementary: AI generates increments, while blockchain determines ownership.

Previously, at the convergence summit held by YZi Labs, I had an in-depth discussion with Alex Odagiu about this macro transformation, exploring how AI agents leverage blockchain to realize programmable trust and the grounded value of stablecoins and asset tokenization, as well as the rhythm of the agent economy's emergence.

Source of Information:YZi Labs Convergence Summit in May 2026

Current Status of Technological Integration Applications

AI agents need to adapt to a native financial system for machines

The current financial system is designed for humans, with cumbersome approval processes, restricted access, and heavy reliance on centralized intermediaries. The industry urgently needs infrastructure tailored for intelligent agents, and blockchain is the optimal solution that can be scaled.

Transaction and Payment Scenarios

Landing cases have already been validated. OpenFX uses stablecoins as a foundational clearing layer, with annual trading settlement volume surpassing $60 billion. Companies clearly state: the next generation of users will not be natural persons but software programs, and within ten years, AI agents will become the largest trading group in the foreign exchange market.

Agents cannot open bank accounts or access federal wire transfers and the SWIFT system; they require low-cost, 24/7 access payment links that support programmed settlements, which is precisely the core advantage of blockchain.

Another benchmark project, Alchemy, is hailed as the AWS of the Web3 domain, serving as the core development platform for the new generation of AI + crypto applications. From agent-specific wallets to on-chain execution layers, Alchemy significantly lowers the barriers for developers to build agent infrastructure.

Human identity verification and rights confirmation have become necessities

In an environment flooded with AI-generated content and simulated accounts, distinguishing between real people, programs, and AI-generated content has become a necessity. Traditional identity systems relying on centralized institutions, such as passports, government documents, and bank cards, cannot adapt to the current industrial environment. The industry urgently needs a global, cryptographically secure, privacy-controlled, and censorship-resistant online identity verification solution, which blockchain precisely meets.

World (formerly Worldcoin) is a leading project in this track, building a global privacy-focused identity and financial network based on human identity confirmation protocols, proving through cryptography that users are unique natural persons:

• Users complete iris scans through the World Orb biometric device;
• Users receive a World ID, with identity information hashed and stored on the Worldchain public ledger;
• The project has verified over 18 million unique real users, ranking among the top five globally in terms of activity on public chains.

The practical value of corporate collaborations revealed in Pantera’s latest Stateful podcast is evident: Tinder uses it to tackle fake registered accounts, Reddit filters real users, and Zoom integrates deep anti-counterfeiting verification into video calls. OpenAI founder Sam Altman co-founded World, predicting early that his AI technology would bring about massive identity fraud challenges.

We have also invested in TransCrypts, focusing on self-sovereign identity and verifiable credential blockchain infrastructure, allowing users to hold trustworthy documents such as diplomas, employment records, and income on-chain to counter AI-generated identity and deepfake fraud at the source. In an era of agent prevalence, programmable trust has become the industry standard.

AI Valuation Bubble, Crypto Asset Value Undervalued

Valuations in the AI sector have skyrocketed, while crypto assets have continued to adjust downward, creating a rare relative value investment window. As of May 2026, the top AI index was priced at a 49% premium over its four-year long-term trend line, while Bitcoin's price was at a 42% discount relative to its own historical long-term trend line. Even though the agent economy will eventually run on crypto infrastructure, the degree of valuation divergence between the two has reached an all-time high.

Bitcoin is undervalued compared to artificial intelligence and trends

Funding and investment competition in the intersection of AI and crypto is heating up; Robbie Mitchnick of BlackRock recently stated: AI agents will not use traditional bank systems but will exclusively opt for blockchain financial tools, with cryptocurrency being the native currency of the era of machine intelligence.

The Industrial Landing Window Has Opened

Entrepreneurs who are deeply engaging in the industry must recognize: the integration of AI and blockchain is not a future trend, but a reality that is being implemented now. Agents require exclusive payment links, decentralized identity verification systems, verifiable credentials, programmable currencies, and development infrastructure that regards agents as native users—none of which traditional finance can provide.

Fundamental projects such as Alchemy, World, TransCrypts, and OpenFX in the Pantera investment research ecosystem are maturing, and the global regulatory environment continues to be favorable, with capital gradually recognizing the valuation undervaluation of the crypto sector. If you are currently laying the groundwork for agent-native finance, decentralized identities, AI-generated content verification, or collaborative systems on-chain, now is the golden period for entrepreneurship. The industry is still in its early stages, foundational technologies are complete, and market demand is exploding.