70% Of US Crypto Investors Would Trust AI With Their Portfolio

Seventy percent of US crypto investors say they would let artificial intelligence manage their portfolio, either with full discretion or inside limits they set themselves. That is the headline finding from a new survey of 1,400 American crypto investors by OKX, a global crypto exchange. Gen Z and millennials are driving almost all of it.

The trust is real. So is the fact that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has until July 31 to tell Congress what actually stops an AI trading agent from losing that money without anyone outside the company being able to check its work.

Gen Z And Millennials Say Yes, Boomers Still Say No

OKX broke its 1,400 respondents down by generation, and the split repeats a pattern the exchange has now measured more than once.

The two studies are different projects, taken months apart, asking different questions. One measured willingness to hand over a portfolio; the other measured general trust in a crypto platform. Either way, the generation order never flips.

Usage backs up the sentiment. OKX found that 51% of respondents use AI tools several times a week for research or trading, and 77% had used a chatbot to look up crypto information within the past three months.

“Gen Z and younger Millennials grew up in a digital world. It’s natural for them to be more comfortable with the digital asset economy,” said Haider Rafique, OKX’s global managing partner, describing the same generational pattern to the crypto outlet BeInCrypto.

The Company Behind The Survey

OKX is not a neutral pollster here. On June 30, the exchange opened a marketplace built around AI agents called OKX.ai to developers, following a closed beta with 50 early agent service providers. OKX calls the project the Agentic Economy: software that hires other software, negotiates and settles payments onchain.

An OKX spokesperson described the pitch simply: “Think of it as Upwork for AI agents,” comparing it to the freelance marketplace where businesses hire contract workers for one-off jobs.

The coming decade would be defined by one-person companies generating over $1mn in annual revenue using agents for an unlimited workforce.

Star Xu, OKX’s founder and chief executive, told TechCrunch that. The exchange says it already runs partly on the theory: nearly 50% of its own engineering pull requests are completed end to end by AI agents, with a stated goal of pushing that to 95%.

OKX is not alone in betting that traders will hand more of the process to software. Kraken has rebuilt its app around AI agents to compete for retail attention, and Bitget’s chief executive has directed fresh capital into AI trading infrastructure rather than deeper order books. A survey showing investors are ready for this is also, conveniently, a market OKX just built a storefront for.

Coinbase Registers Its Adviser, Then Hedges The Bet

One competitor has already gone further than a survey. On June 16, 2026, Coinbase launched Coinbase Advisor as part of a 21-product event, describing it as one of the first AI investment advisers registered with the SEC, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the National Futures Association (NFA).

That registration puts more than 110 million Coinbase users in a category the exchange has never occupied before, one where it owes them a fiduciary duty, the highest standard of care in US financial law. But Coinbase’s own disclosures say the adviser’s output “may be inaccurate or incomplete,” and that investment outcomes remain the customer’s responsibility.

Regulators have already been clear that the registration itself does not lower the bar. AI does not diminish or alter that obligation, according to a compliance analysis from law firm Troutman Pepper Locke; it only changes how an adviser has to prove it met the standard.

Congress Gives The SEC Until July 31 To Explain Itself

Coinbase’s launch got noticed on Capitol Hill. Representatives Bill Foster and Brad Sherman led a letter to SEC Chair Paul Atkins, cosigned by Stephen Lynch, Jim Himes, Sean Casten, Rashida Tlaib, Brittany Pettersen and Sylvia Garcia, arguing that AI trading agents have “operated largely outside the securities regulatory framework” even while making “consequential investment decisions on behalf of retail investors.”

The letter pointed directly at Coinbase’s disclosures, which state that platforms “cannot guarantee the accuracy or suitability of any AI output and cannot control, monitor, or audit the agents themselves.”

The lawmakers asked the SEC to answer, in writing, by July 31:

• What guardrails or analysis the agency has already done on AI trading agents
• How the SEC decides when an AI agent has to register at all
• How closely the agency has consulted with platforms building these tools
• Whether the SEC already has the legal authority it needs, or whether Congress has to grant it

That deadline lands just nine days after this article publishes.

A Track Record Of Punishing AI Overreach

This is not new territory for the SEC. In March 2024, it settled its first “AI washing” enforcement actions, against Delphia (USA) Inc. and Global Predictions, two advisers accused of overselling what their algorithms actually did.

Global Predictions had marketed itself as the “first regulated AI financial advisor” producing “expert AI driven forecasts,” claims the SEC found it could not substantiate. Its advisory contract also let the firm change terms on clients without notice, a separate violation of its fiduciary duty.

The SEC’s 2026 exam priorities keep that scrutiny alive, with examiners continuing to prioritize duty of care and loyalty at registered advisers using AI.

What we know:

• Precedent exists. The SEC has already punished advisers for overstating AI capability, not for using AI itself.
• Coinbase’s registrations are real. Its AI adviser is signed up with the SEC, the CFTC and the NFA, alongside disclaimers that shift outcome risk to the user.
• A deadline is set. The SEC owes Congress written answers by July 31 on whether agentic trading is even covered by current law.

What’s unconfirmed:

• Whether the SEC will require other exchanges’ AI agents to register the way Coinbase’s did
• Whether OKX’s own agent marketplace or portfolio tools will face the same questions
• What the SEC’s July 31 response will actually say, and whether it arrives on time

How Much Of That 70% Is Actually Money?

Stated willingness and actual capital are not the same thing. Other surveys of crypto investors asked the dollar question directly, and the answers are far more cautious than a 70% headline implies.

A separate industry survey reported by Cryptonomist in June found that 79.4% of crypto investors would allow AI to manage 25% or less of their portfolio, with the most popular ceiling sitting between 5% and 10%. Only 6.5% would let AI control more than half. Just 2% said they would hand over the entire account.

Marketed performance is part of what is pulling people in. AI trading agents from platforms including Tickeron have advertised annualized returns as high as 232%, the kind of number that makes 38% full-control adoption among Gen Z look conservative by comparison.

The SEC’s written answers are due July 31. Until then, most of the investors behind that 70% figure are still keeping at least one hand on the account, not the whole thing.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and is not investment advice. AI-managed crypto portfolios carry real financial risk, regulatory treatment is still unsettled, and readers should consult a licensed financial professional before acting on anything here.