The rapid advances in autonomous agents are relaunching the debate on the infrastructures that will support the digital exchanges of tomorrow. In this context, Franklin Templeton believes that AI could transform the way payments and transactions are carried out. The asset manager considers that crypto will occupy a central place in this evolution thanks to blockchain networks. This analysis is based on the rise of agents capable of acting alone, making payments and carrying out complex tasks after authorization from their user.
In brief
- Franklin Templeton believes that AI agents will accelerate blockchain adoption.
- Autonomous agents will be able to purchase, pay and reserve without ongoing intervention.
- Blockchains are presented as more suitable than traditional payment networks.
- Several players are already developing payment infrastructures for AI agents.
- Automated commerce could reach up to $5 trillion by 2030.
Why AI Could Drive Blockchain Adoption
For Sandy Kaul, head of digital assets and innovation at Franklin Templeton, investing in AI-related companies like Nvidia is not enough to benefit from this entire technological transformation. In his article published on This development would profoundly modify the infrastructures used for digital exchanges.
The asset manager, which administers nearly $1.8 trillion, believes that these new software will work primarily on blockchain networks. According to his analysis, these infrastructures will allow agents to carry out their operations efficiently. Crypto would then become a key part of this environment, as transactions would rely directly on decentralized networks rather than traditional financial systems.
Blockchain will play a critical role in enabling agentive AI to realize its potential in consumer transactions, and the growth of agentive AI will likely become the “flagship” use case that drives blockchain adoption.
Sandy Kaul, Head of Digital Assets and Innovation at Franklin Templeton. Source: X / @FTDA_US
Thus, Franklin Templeton considers that blockchain could become the main driver of the adoption of autonomous agents. The group says this technology will play a critical role in enabling these systems to reach their full potential in consumer transactions.
Autonomous agents capable of acting without permanent supervision
Unlike traditional conversational assistants, AI agents no longer limit themselves to providing answers or information. Once permission is granted, they can make purchases, book services or make payments without ongoing human intervention. This autonomy represents a significant change in the use of digital tools.
Franklin Templeton relies in particular on a Capgemini study to illustrate this development. The firm describes this new generation of software as:
Systems capable of understanding their environment, planning actions and carrying out complex tasks in order to achieve specific objectives. The objective is therefore no longer just to respond to a request, but to directly execute the necessary operations.
AI consultancy firm Capgemini.
The economic outlook follows this trend. According to predictions cited by Sandy Kaul, AI agents could represent between 15% and 25% of all e-commerce sales in the United States by 2030. Such a progression would imply a sharp increase in the number of transactions carried out automatically on digital infrastructures.
Crypto networks presented as a response to the needs of agents
Still with Franklin Templeton’s analysis, the company believes that traditional payment networks were designed for a human pace of use. In an environment where thousands of operations could be executed every hour by autonomous agents, these infrastructures would quickly reach their limits. Banks would not be able to process such a large volume within the expected time frame.
According to her, blockchain networks would provide a different answer. While Bitcoin only processes around 7 transactions per second and Ethereum around 75, some recent blockchains show high performance. Aptos can reach 12,933 transactions per second (TPS), Solana 6,284 and BNB Chain 3 252. These levels approach the operational capabilities of the Visa network under normal conditions.
However, the digital asset manager highlights an important difference. Blockchains record and settle transactions directly on the network, while Visa first records the transaction before settling within up to several business days. For crypto, this processing speed would be an advantage when thousands of micropayments need to be executed automatically.
Infrastructures already in development for automated payments
The first concrete initiatives are already appearing around AI agents. Coinbase launched tools allowing these software to perform transactions and payments autonomously. For its part, Google presented a payment protocol intended for agents, supported by the Ethereum Foundation.
The development of these infrastructures also continues with the creation of the X402 foundation. This organization brings together forty players, including Visa, Mastercard and AWS. Its objective is to build an open payment infrastructure allowing software to make payments directly to each other over the Internet using a protocol based on old HTTP code.
In this model, each agent could purchase data, access programming interfaces, or acquire computing power using a blockchain’s native token. Franklin Templeton estimates that demand for crypto could then evolve at the same rate as the volume of these automated exchanges.
Sandy Kaul therefore considers that investors wishing to capture the value created by these networks will have to be interested in cryptocurrencies and associated altcoins. The projections cited in his analysis finally indicate that automated commerce based on artificial intelligence could represent between 3,000 and 5,000 billion dollars by 2030. If this development is confirmed, crypto could accompany the rise of autonomous agents as these new uses gain ground in the digital economy.
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