AI agents spark stablecoin and blockchain arms race

Jeremy Allaire, CEO of Circle, last week published an 18,500-word treatise titled The Agentic Economy, arguing that the infrastructure for AI-driven commerce must match the sophistication of AI itself. His core claim is that "an economy run by software agents must run on software money, software contracts, and software governance, or it cannot run at all." Allaire positions blockchain and stablecoins as the necessary "circulatory system for value" to complement AI as the "planetary nervous system for information."

Circle itself is advancing this vision. The company recently secured approval to establish a federally regulated national trust bank—a milestone that removes a key regulatory constraint on stablecoin issuers. In parallel, Circle's USDC, a regulated stablecoin redeemable 1:1 for U.S. dollars, continues to gain traction in the emerging ecosystem.

However, Circle is far from alone. Open Standard, a coalition including Stripe, Visa, Blackrock, and about 140 other firms, is launching Open USD this year. The key innovation is its governance model: instead of reserves being held by a single issuer, they are shared among all partners, each of whom can mint and redeem tokens at no cost. This model could appeal to consumer brands like Walmart, Amazon, and Starbucks, which could use stablecoins to bypass credit card fees and settle transactions at a fraction of the cost.

Established financial infrastructure is adapting rapidly. Visa launched a new platform last week providing stablecoin services to more than 200 million merchants. During Visa's second-quarter earnings call, CEO Ryan McInerney predicted that agentic commerce "will expand our addressable market," pointing to stablecoins and blockchain as showing "significant opportunities" for growth. SWIFT, the global network linking more than 11,500 financial institutions, has now deployed a blockchain-based ledger.

The landscape remains fluid. The article notes that "the winners of today might not dominate the onchain economy of tomorrow," suggesting that the infrastructure battle is far from settled. Success will go to platforms that attract top talent and developers while building trusted, secure ecosystems—described as "putting a toll booth on a popular and safe highway that everyone wants to use" rather than attempting to monetize access to unknown or untrusted channels.

The emergence of agentic commerce—transactions executed by AI agents without human intervention—is forcing a reckoning with payment infrastructure. Jeremy Allaire's framing captures the core insight: if AI is becoming the operating system for intelligence and decision-making, then blockchain and stablecoins must become the operating system for value transfer. Without software-native money and contracts, an economy run by agents cannot function reliably or compliantly at scale.

What makes this moment consequential is that incumbent financial institutions are not sitting on the sidelines. Visa, which processes trillions in payments annually, is launching stablecoin services to 200 million merchants and positioning agentic commerce as a growth driver. SWIFT, the settlement backbone for 11,500 financial institutions, is moving to blockchain-based ledgers. Circle's federal trust bank charter removes a regulatory bottleneck that has hampered stablecoin issuers. Meanwhile, Open Standard's model—shared reserve holdings and mint rights among dozens of partners—suggests the winning infrastructure may not be winner-take-all, but rather a shared utility accessible to many.

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