Wall Street's Perspective: Stablecoins, AI Agents, and the Future of Payments
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When autonomous artificial intelligence (AI) agents begin to engage in commercial transactions, what kind of currency will they choose? The latest insights from Wall Street suggest that the answer may point to stablecoins.
According to Trading Desk News, in a recent research report released by Bank of America on October 13, Michael Hsu, former Acting Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) of the United States, pointed out that with the rise of "agentic commerce", AI developers are increasingly favoring stablecoins.
In his exchange with Bank of America experts, Hsu said: "They like stablecoins. Why? Because it's a programming language, very simple... very friendly to programmers and developers." He believes this could make stablecoins the preferred currency form in future automated economic systems.
This forward-looking view is increasingly being validated by practical actions of financial institutions. According to Reuters, ten major global banks are exploring issuing stablecoins pegged to G7 currencies. Meanwhile, Citi Ventures, the venture capital arm of Citigroup, recently announced an investment in BVNK, a startup focused on stablecoin payment infrastructure. It is reported that crypto exchange Coinbase and payment giant Mastercard have also held acquisition talks with BVNK, highlighting the fierce competition for the infrastructure needed to transfer "on-chain" assets.
However, this payment revolution is not a smooth road. Operators of traditional payment systems are not sitting idle, and their existing networks are evolving at an astonishing speed. David Watson, CEO of payment service provider The Clearing House (TCH), emphasized that its operated Real-Time Payments (RTP) network and the FedNow system supported by the Federal Reserve now offer programmability and many other functions. This suggests that the emerging stablecoins will be in direct competition with an increasingly powerful and efficient traditional payment system.
Agentic AI: The Unexpected Catalyst for Stablecoin Adoption
In the future automated economy, the driving force behind payments may no longer be humans, but AI agents. The Bank of America report clearly points out this key catalyst.
Michael Hsu's view is that when AI agents engage in commercial activities, they need a transaction medium that matches their digitally-native attributes.
Stablecoins happen to meet this need. Hsu explained that developers can easily create a wallet and conduct transactions with stablecoins without accessing traditional banking systems.
This "developer-friendly" characteristic gives it a natural advantage in a programming-driven commercial environment. If agentic commerce grows as expected, its demand for stablecoins may become a core driver for the widespread adoption of the latter.
Battle of Payment Rails: A Showdown Between Stablecoins and Traditional Systems
Despite the promising outlook for stablecoins, they must face fierce competition from existing payment giants. TCH CEO David Watson offers a sober perspective in the report: traditional payment rails are far from obsolete.
The strong momentum of traditional Real-Time Payments (RTP): Watson pointed out that after a slow initial growth, user numbers for TCH's RTP network have surged in the past 24 months. This proves that in the field of domestic payments, RTP and the Federal Reserve's FedNow system already provide efficient and low-cost solutions.
The core advantage zone of stablecoins: Watson believes that in the U.S. domestic payment field, stablecoins are unlikely to disrupt existing systems. Their real use lies in areas with obvious friction, such as cross-border payments, remittances, and wholesale markets. Currently, cross-border payments rely on messaging systems like SWIFT to connect two independent domestic payment systems, with a complex process and room for improvement in efficiency. Stablecoins and Tokenized Deposits are expected to bring disruptive change to these areas.
Infrastructure Race Heats Up as Giants Scramble to "Sell Shovels"
As on-chain assets become a trend, a "gold rush" around underlying infrastructure has begun, and industry giants are racing to become the "shovel sellers".
The report emphasizes that the current performance bottlenecks of blockchains are the main obstacle for large-scale payment application rollouts. Michael Hsu noted that because current blockchains face "low throughput, unpredictable gas fees, and probabilistic settlement," these are unacceptable for payment scenarios that demand immediacy and certainty.
Because of this, payment giants are personally stepping in to "build roads". Circle (Arc), Stripe (Tempo), and PayPal (Stable) and other payment innovators have announced the development of their own Layer 1 (L1) blockchains.
This trend, together with Citi’s investment in BVNK and Coinbase and Mastercard’s acquisition intentions, clearly shows the market’s high recognition of the value of infrastructure such as stablecoin payment rails. This competition to build foundational public chains aims to create a more efficient and reliable foundation for future payment scenarios.
The Road to Rollout Still Faces Multiple Obstacles
From concept to widespread adoption, the future of stablecoins must still overcome multiple real-world obstacles such as cost, regulation, and sovereignty.
First is the issue of cost. David Watson reminds us that although blockchain supporters often emphasize its low cost, the core costs of clearing and settlement in traditional payment networks are "minimal", and organizations like TCH and the Federal Reserve do not put profit as their top priority. **Watson emphasized that in areas where nonprofit organizations provide services, the cost advantage of for-profit stablecoin providers may be offset, and the true core cost of clearing and settlement is actually very low.** In addition, enterprises and financial institutions adopting new technology require huge technical renovation and integration costs, and the true "end-to-end" cost of stablecoins, including interoperability with existing financial instruments, has not yet received sufficient attention.
Next is regulatory certainty. The report mentions that the passage of relevant legislation is essential to establish clear rules, ensure the safety and soundness of stablecoin systems, and provide enforcement tools—such as the ability to freeze and destroy tokens in cases of illegal activities like money laundering or sanctions evasion.
Finally, sovereignty issues cannot be ignored. Watson envisions that if depositors in a country with high interest rates and high inflation were to exchange their local currency for US dollar stablecoins on a large scale, the government of that country would be unlikely to welcome the erosion of its deposit base and loss of monetary control. This could lead to protectionist measures that would add further uncertainties to the global expansion of stablecoins.
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