- Cardano and Midnight founder Charles Hoskinson predicts that cryptocurrencies will increasingly underpin AI systems, with blockchain-based coordination and settlement networks becoming essential to the industry’s long-term viability.
Following an investigation into how rapidly self-improving AI agents are advancing toward superintelligence, Hoskinson argued that cryptocurrencies could ultimately become integral to the technology. He expects this shift to unfold over the next five to 10 years.
“Cryptocurrencies are going to eat AI because we solve all the hard problems that AI can’t solve,” Hoskinson told crypto commentator Scott Melker, who is known online as “The World Of All Streets.”
Why AI Needs Blockchain Infrastructure
Hoskinson identified payments, incentive alignment, and data provenance as major unresolved challenges in AI development. He argued that blockchain networks are uniquely positioned to address these issues.
He acknowledged that companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic can generate substantial revenue from their models. However, he argued that the high cost of pre-training can undermine profitability and that AI’s demanding compute and energy requirements are not sustainable indefinitely.
Hoskinson also contended that AI capabilities cannot expand by more than 10 times annually because of electricity constraints.
He compared the situation to the fiber-optic boom of the 1990s, when most of the infrastructure went unused until demand caught up roughly a decade later. Hoskinson believes cryptocurrency could play a similar enabling role by providing coordination and settlement layers that pool GPUs, phones, and other devices into a decentralized AI grid.
Hoskinson Expects $10 Trillion in Tokenized Real-World Assets
After the Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act failed to secure enough support in a Senate cloture vote, with 49 senators voting in favor and 50 against, Hoskinson said similar legislation may return around 2029. Nevertheless, he expects public blockchains to tokenize $10 trillion worth of real-world assets by the end of 2030.
According to RWA.xyz, approximately $711.049 billion in real-world assets is currently tokenized, including $304.582 billion represented by stablecoins. Reaching $10 trillion would represent growth of about 1,306.37% within the projected timeframe.
Obama Calls for Swift, Bipartisan AI Regulation
Former US President Barack Obama criticized President Donald Trump’s permissive approach to artificial intelligence regulation. Speaking at an event at Colgate University this month, Obama urged Congress to begin a “serious bipartisan conversation” and act quickly.
Obama, who served as US president from 2009 to 2017, said AI development had shifted from models that were 90% trained by humans to an even balance between human and machine training in just six months. He warned that the technology could reach a 90% self-learning threshold if the current administration fails to establish effective regulation.
“We’re now hitting the hockey stick trajectory where the models are going to get smarter and better at an exponential pace,” Obama warned.
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