The Rollup Alchemy CEO: Why AI Agents Need Crypto More Than Humans Do with Nikhil Viswanathan
Feb 5, 2026
Nikhil Viswanathan, CEO of Alchemy and entrepreneur who builds AI agents, explains why crypto rails are ideal for autonomous agents. He discusses Starbucks-style balance loading, an agent (Dave) that built its own website, blockchain as a property/authenticity layer, and the four components that make agents truly powerful.
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Apps Becoming Neo-Banks
- Any app with an audience can become a neo-bank by holding user balances and offering financial services.
- Crypto and stablecoins lower cost and regulatory friction to enable apps to capture interest and loans revenue.
Agent Built Its Own Website
- Nikhil built an autonomous agent given a card, phone, Apple ID and Mac that signed up for a domain and built a website over a weekend.
- The agent independently created tools and started building websites for friends without human intervention.
Crypto Is Natural For Agents
- AI agents cannot access traditional banks physically, so crypto provides natural transaction rails for them.
- Agents prefer APIs, numeric interfaces, and seed phrases over logging into legacy banking portals.