TLDR:
- Raoul Pal argues UBI is a broken 20th-century solution that cannot keep pace with an AI-driven economy.
- AI agents will become the biggest DeFi users within five years, managing treasuries at machine speed.
- Anyone with a phone can buy permissionless equity in blockchain infrastructure with no KYC or restrictions.
- Pal projects the total crypto market will hit $100 trillion in six to eight years, calling it humanity’s pension plan.
Crypto will power the first truly global wealth system, according to macro investor Raoul Pal. The Real Vision CEO recently outlined a sweeping vision for how blockchain technology could reshape wealth distribution after artificial intelligence disrupts traditional economies.
Pal argues that permissionless crypto ownership is not a speculative bet but a structural reality. He believes anyone with a phone and internet connection can access this system regardless of location, status, or background.
Crypto Rails Are Already Replacing Legacy Financial Infrastructure
Crypto will power the new economy because legacy financial systems cannot keep up with AI-agent activity. The dollar does not fractionalise below a cent, and settlement is far from instant. Permissions depend on jurisdiction, which slows down machine-speed transactions considerably.
Pal noted that “agents run on crypto rails because nothing else works.” He added that “stablecoins handle the dollar leg and native tokens handle the rest.” This makes blockchain infrastructure the only viable backbone for an agent-driven economy.
AI agents are becoming the dominant users of the internet, gradually replacing human activity online. Pal wrote that “the biggest users of DeFi in five years won’t be humans farming yield” but rather “agents managing treasuries, swapping, earning and spending at machine speed.” That shift is already underway and accelerating faster than most expect.
Pal also pointed to memecoins as an early proof of concept for this system. He described them as enabling “instant capital formation around the attention of an idea, raised by entities without legal personhood, settled in seconds.” That model, he argues, is “the template agent economies will use to fund themselves.”
A Permissionless Stake in the World’s Productive Infrastructure
Crypto will power the first homogenous, globally fractionalisable claim on productive infrastructure ever created. Layer 1 blockchains are not just settling agent transactions but coordinating the entire new economy. Every contract, treasury, permission, and identity layer routes through this substrate.
Pal described ownership of this substrate as the actual answer to what he calls the Economic Singularity. He stated that anyone on earth with a phone can access “the first homogenous, permissionless, globally fractionalisable claim on the productive infrastructure of the world.” He added that there are “no KYC walls, no accreditation rules, no jurisdiction, no employer, no state, no permission.”
He outlines four pillars that hold up the post-AGI world for humans. These are Universal Basic Equity through token ownership, income derived from being human, AI-driven abundance lowering living costs, and taxing data center electricity use. Pal called these “four legs of a stool that holds up the post-singularity human world.”
Pal advises putting 10% of monthly earnings into crypto assets consistently over a decade. He recommends “Bitcoin if you want pure store of value, a basket of the major L1s if you want the coordination layer.” He projects the total crypto market will reach $100 trillion within six to eight years, adding that crypto is “humanity’s pension plan.”
