Robbie Mitchnick, BlackRock’s head of digital assets, argues that artificial intelligence is a more important long-term force for crypto than the growth of new tokens. He made the remarks on Tuesday at the Digital Asset Summit in New York. Mitchnick described a clear pattern in how institutional clients approach the market. He said most investors are no longer seeking broad exposure across many tokens.
Instead, they are concentrating holdings on Bitcoin and Ethereum, with little appetite for anything beyond those two assets. He described turnover among top tokens as “pretty ferocious.” Most newer tokens, he said, fail to maintain relevance long enough to attract sustained institutional interest. “The majority of that is nonsense,” Mitchnick said, referring to the overall token landscape.
Mitchnick argued that artificial intelligence represents a larger structural theme than crypto on its own. He said the two areas connect in a specific way. Existing financial infrastructure, including systems like Fedwire and SWIFT, is not built for AI-driven activity. Crypto, in his framing, fills that gap.
“Crypto is computer-native money,” he said. “AI is computer-native data and intelligence. There’s a natural symbiosis there.” That view positions Bitcoin and crypto infrastructure as functional components of the AI economy rather than standalone speculative assets. A growing number of Bitcoin miners have already begun redirecting computing resources toward AI workloads.
Listed miners, including Hut 8, Core Scientific, and Iren, are either converting data centers or signing hosting agreements tied to AI and high-performance computing. Mitchnick also connected Bitcoin to the uncertainty that AI-driven disruption creates across industries. He suggested that Bitcoin can serve as a diversifying asset during periods of rapid technological change. He said there are clear “intersection points” where crypto can play a role in the AI economy going forward.
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