Aptos Labs CEO on how AI agents will work with tokenized assets

Amid the charade of crypto-AI booths, panels and pitches at Token2049, I sat down with Aptos Labs CEO Avery Ching to find out if any of it was more than just smoke and mirrors.

Ching suggested the real value lies in enabling AI agents to interact with blockchain-based assets — both crypto-native assets and tokenized assets like real estate.

“There's no reason why we shouldn't have real estate onchain,” he said, in an interview. “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.”

Once AI agents can access these assets, Ching said, they could help construct personalized portfolios tailored to each user’s goals. As more assets migrate onchain, it also opens up new possibilities — like using tokenized real estate as collateral for loans.

“So it's really an interesting role when you have a centralized [ecosystem] — where all the liquidity happens in one place — but a decentralized infrastructure that can support the world's economy in one place,” Ching said. “That's what's really exciting.”

Ching said AI agents are likely to become a routine part of life, much like ChatGPT today. “I suspect at least one per person, if not multiple,” he said.

He also argued that blockchains could offer a defense against AI-generated misinformation. For example, by storing a hashed version of this interview onchain, it would be possible to prove its original content and timestamp if someone later tried to present a manipulated version as real.

“I think AI and crypto here is an interesting kind of protection for data to be put on the ledger and then kind of watched over time as that modifies and as the data gets enhanced or deformed through AI in the future,” he said.

As for tokenized equities, Ching said adoption will likely begin outside the U.S., where access to traditional equities is still limited.