Franklin Templeton pitches crypto as payment rail for AI agents
The $1.8 trillion asset manager argues that autonomous AI software will bypass legacy payment networks in favor of blockchains, creating a major new source of demand for cryptocurrencies like Solana and Ethereum.
Franklin Templeton published a paper Tuesday arguing that agentic AI—autonomous software capable of executing tasks like shopping and paying without human supervision—will rely on blockchain networks rather than traditional financial infrastructure.
The firm’s thesis presents a direct challenge to investors who believe their AI exposure is adequately covered by hardware and infrastructure stocks. Sandy Kaul, head of digital assets and innovation at the $1.8 trillion asset manager, contends that capturing the economic upside of this technology requires owning the native cryptocurrencies of the networks that will process these agent transactions.
The argument hinges on settlement speed and network capacity. Legacy payment systems were built for human-scale commerce and cannot handle the projected volume of machine-to-machine micropayments. While the Visa network records 1,700 to 10,000 transactions per second, actual settlement takes one to three business days. Blockchains record and settle simultaneously.
Franklin Templeton highlighted that newer blockchains already match or exceed legacy processing speeds, with Aptos handling 12,933 transactions per second, Solana at 6,284, and BNB Chain at 3,252. Bitcoin and Ethereum trail significantly at 7 and 75 transactions per second, respectively.
Major financial and technology players are already preparing for this structural shift. On July 14, the x402 Foundation launched with 40 members including Visa, Mastercard, and AWS to build open payment rails for AI agents. Coinbase has introduced tools for autonomous AI trading, while Google unveiled an Ethereum-backed payment protocol for agents earlier this year.
The economic scale of this transition could be substantial. A Bain & Company forecast cited in the paper estimates AI agents will account for 15% to 25% of all U.S. e-commerce sales by 2030. McKinsey & Company projects the total market for agentic commerce will reach $3 trillion to $5 trillion by the end of the decade.
If agents use native tokens to purchase data, compute power, and API access, network volumes could translate directly into price demand for those coins. "I believe what will become increasingly clear in coming years is that in order to capture the value of decentralized networks and businesses, investors will need to buy the cryptocurrencies and alt coins being issued by those entities," Kaul wrote.
