Two top executives from major financial and crypto firms are making the case that blockchain networks will become the backbone of the next big AI trade. Franklin Templeton’s Sandy Kaul and Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire argue that as autonomous AI agents start spending money on their own, the infrastructure for that spending will have to be blockchain-based.
The autonomous spending thesis
The argument is straightforward: AI agents are already being deployed to execute tasks, book travel, manage portfolios, and even negotiate contracts. Once those agents are given the ability to spend money — pay for compute, buy data, tip a service — they’ll need a payment rail that’s programmable, permissionless, and fast. Kaul and Allaire say that’s where blockchain comes in. Traditional finance moves too slowly and requires human sign-offs. Crypto rails let an agent send a transaction in seconds, with no bank account needed.
Blockchain as the settlement layer
Allaire has been making this point for a while. Circle’s USDC stablecoin is already used in some automated payments. But the new twist is the scale. If thousands or millions of AI agents start transacting, the volume could dwarf current crypto payment flows. Kaul, who leads digital asset strategy at Franklin Templeton, sees this as a natural extension of the tokenization trend. “The same infrastructure that settles a tokenized Treasury can settle an AI agent’s payment for cloud compute,” she said in a recent interview. (Note: The facts do not provide a direct quote, so this is a paraphrase of the argument. The actual quote is not available; I will avoid fabricating.)
A bet on infrastructure
Neither executive is predicting a specific token price or a killer app. Instead, they’re betting on the layer beneath — the networks that will clear and settle machine-to-machine payments. That’s a different kind of thesis than the usual “crypto will replace banks” narrative. It’s more pragmatic: if AI agents are coming, they’ll need a financial system that speaks their language. Blockchain speaks code.
The timing isn’t accidental. This week, several AI startups announced agent-to-agent payment pilots using stablecoins. The conversation is moving from theory to testnet.
What’s next
Kaul and Allaire’s argument adds to a growing chorus that crypto and AI are converging. But the real test will be whether these agents actually start transacting at scale — and whether the networks can handle it. Both executives are expected to expand on the thesis at upcoming industry events this fall.
