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▲ Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual Asset Payment / AI-generated image
As the era of Artificial Intelligence (AI) agents independently exploring services and even performing payments unfolds, virtual assets are establishing themselves as the next-generation economic infrastructure.
On April 21 (local time), crypto media outlet Benzinga reported that Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, launched 'Agentic,' a marketplace exclusively for AI agents. Armstrong emphasized on X (formerly Twitter) that for the agent economy to enter a stage beyond the human-centric economy, a 'discovery layer' is essential, allowing agents to find and integrate services themselves.
The Agentic platform serves as a key infrastructure performing this role, designed to enable AI agents to explore various services and make payments based on the x402 standard. It's a structure where services in diverse fields such as infrastructure, social media, and travel are connected within a single ecosystem.
The core technology, x402, is an internet-native payment protocol developed by Coinbase. Through this, AI agents and APIs can make real-time payments using the stablecoin USDC. The ability to integrate without a separate API key is considered a significant factor in lowering development barriers to entry.
Agentic goes beyond a simple payment system to serve as a hub for agent commerce. Users can register their AI agents or list their services on the platform to generate revenue, and all participants only need to be compatible with the x402 standard.
Armstrong has consistently presented the outlook that AI agents will emerge as key players in economic activities. He predicted that in the future, AI agents will use cryptocurrency wallets to conduct transactions directly, eventually processing more financial transactions than humans. This means that AI is evolving from a mere auxiliary tool to an economic entity with the authority to execute funds.
Virtual assets are considered a core foundation for these changes. Given their ability for instant payments without border restrictions, they are evaluated as the optimal means to implement an automated AI economy.
Competition surrounding the Agentic commerce market is also rapidly expanding. Recently, World Liberty Financial (WLFI), supported by the Trump family, built its own payment infrastructure and introduced agent payment functionality using its stablecoin USD1. This shows that the race for dominance in the AI-based payment ecosystem is intensifying.
The market expects this trend to trigger structural changes across the traditional fintech industry. As asset movement becomes automated and code-based, the speed and efficiency of financial transactions are projected to significantly improve.
Meanwhile, Coinbase shares closed at $211.63, up 2.57% in regular trading the previous day, boosted by news of this service launch. The Agentic platform plans to function as a 'gateway to the agent economy,' integrating virtual asset data and various services in the future.
The combination of AI and blockchain is evolving towards building a fast and transparent economic system while minimizing human intervention. The market is watching how quickly Agentic commerce will spread across actual industries.
*Disclaimer: This article is for investment reference only, and we are not responsible for investment losses based on it. The content should be interpreted for informational purposes only.*
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