AI Agents and Crypto: The New Financial System
By Ben Caselin, CMO, VALR
Originally published by Business Day.
The Transformation of Value
The current financial system, stipulating how value is created, secured, grown and transferred, is changing dramatically. Globally, this shift appears in response to events such as today’s energy crisis and in everyday transactions and payments. We can see alternative currencies, including bitcoin and stablecoins, come under active consideration and see increasing use.
Bitcoin allows anyone to participate without needing approval from a central authority. It operates independently of any single controlling entity and gives users greater control over their own finances. It is digital and designed to enable direct value movement over the Internet. Stablecoins offer similar benefits while remaining linked to existing fiat currencies.
A Fluid, Borderless Economy
This change invites a more imaginative view of the future economy. I think of a world where more of the world’s population is highly mobile, living fluidly across urban centres and rural areas. More work likely occurs remotely in distributed team settings. Transactions would happen often, seamlessly, in borderless fashion, and probably on the basis of a widely shared unit of account.
Aside from humans, AI agents would also actively participate in the economy as autonomous systems with minimal human input. And if that’s not enough, the Internet of Things could add yet another layer. Think about cars, household appliances and public infrastructure engaging in economic activity on a semi-autonomous basis. Such an economy would be highly fluid, digital, vibrant, and inclusive, and would likely require digital currencies secured by cryptography.
Bitcoin, potentially operating on the Lightning Network for fast and low-cost settlements, could serve as one foundation. Stablecoins linked to fiat currencies or digital versions of real-world assets such as gold could provide others. Further forms may emerge. This infrastructure could support the seamless exchange of value among humans, AI agents and connected devices.
VALR and the Emerging Institutions
As this new financial architecture takes shape, established institutions will upgrade and a new generation of institutions will emerge. VALR is one such institution. At the highest level, our aim is to advance the economic life of human civilisation and work towards a financial system that is truly inclusive of all of humanity and empowers all.
On the VALR platform, markets support price discovery, where participants can express their views on the future of money. Users access ways into crypto and out of fiat through bank transfers, credit and debit cards, mobile money or OTC services. Once funded, the platform offers staking, lending, and borrowing for new forms of yield generation. VALR Pay enables users to integrate crypto into daily economic activity. While that ultimate vision of a comprehensive, ultra-fluid, Internet-native economy may take more than a decade to unfold, we are certainly operating on the frontiers of that new era, laying the groundwork.
VALR’s embrace of AI and Agentic Finance
Just last month, VALR announced the launch of its AI Service, which consists of two parts. For human users, we’ve developed a chat service which provides intuitive assistance through intelligent market analysis, insights into account activity and performance, trading suggestions, and immediate tailored support. In parallel, we have opened up VALR’s exchange infrastructure to autonomous AI agents as independent economic actors. Following the open Agent Skills Standard, our API now supports agents such as OpenClaw, Anthropic’s Claude Code, OpenAI’s Codex, OpenCode and others, to conduct financial activities on VALR.
Change is happening fast and progress is evident across all vectors, from public perception and regulation to institutional uptake, technology and partnerships between traditional and new institutions. Founded in 2018, VALR is now the leading digital asset infrastructure provider on the African continent, serving 1.8 million registered users and 2,000 corporate and institutional clients worldwide. We invite everyone to join us in shaping this new era of finance.
For more information, visit valr.com
Risk Disclosure
Trading or investing in crypto assets is risky and may result in the loss of capital as the value may fluctuate. VALR (Pty) Ltd is a licensed financial services provider (FSP #53308).
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article are the personal views of the author and should not form the basis for making investment decisions, nor be construed as a recommendation or advice to engage in investment transactions.
