Aptos Labs CEO: AI Agents and Onchain Assets Could Reshape the Global Economy

While much of Token2049 buzzed with AI-flavored crypto pitches and flashy marketing, Aptos Labs CEO Avery Ching offered a more grounded—and arguably transformative—vision for the future: a world where AI agents interact seamlessly with blockchain-based assets to power a smarter, more decentralized economy.

Aptos Labs CEO Avery Ching offered a compelling vision for the future at Token2049, envisioning a world where AI agents interact seamlessly with onchain assets, powered by the Aptos blockchain.

Ching's vision, however, diverged from the prevailing AI hype at the conference. While many pitches focused on AI-powered crypto projects and new tokens, Ching emphasized that AI's true potential in the crypto space lies beyond the hype.

According to Ching, AI's real value will emerge when it gains the ability to manage both crypto-native and tokenized real-world assets onchain.

“There’s no reason why we shouldn’t have real estate onchain,” Ching said. “There’s no reason why we shouldn’t have stocks, bonds, treasuries, money market funds, pre-IPOs. All that stuff should move onchain over time.”

From Personalized Portfolios to Onchain Lending

In Ching's vision, AI agents would construct customized portfolios for individual users, selecting from a wide array of onchain assets to align with each user’s financial goals.

With more real-world assets becoming tokenized, AI could tap into unprecedented levels of data and accessibility to optimize financial decision-making at scale.

Moreover, tokenized assets like real estate could open the door to new decentralized finance (DeFi) applications — including using those assets as collateral for loans.

“We can imagine people taking out loans against their real estate onchain to purchase another asset or to unlock liquidity,” Ching said.

AI Agents for All, and Blockchain as a Truth Anchor

Looking ahead, Ching predicts that AI agents could become as commonplace as smartphones — if not more so. “I suspect at least one per person, if not multiple.”

He also proposed that blockchains could play a key role in combating misinformation. By storing hashed, immutable versions of content like interviews or official statements, blockchains could serve as a verifiable timestamp,

As the lines blur between artificial intelligence and decentralized systems, Ching's vision places blockchain not just as a tool for value transfer, but as a foundational infrastructure for the AI-driven economy of the future.