Franklin Templeton's Sandy Kaul says autonomous AI agents will need blockchains, not just traditional payment rails. She points to Aptos, Solana, and BNB Chain as infrastructure for the $3-5 trillion agentic commerce market by 2030.
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Franklin Templeton's Sandy Kaul is telling investors the AI trade should include crypto, not just equities. Autonomous AI agents will need to transact onchain, she argues, and traditional payment rails are not built for that future.
By 2030, agentic commerce – machine-to-machine transactions initiated by AI – could handle $3 trillion to $5 trillion in volume, Kaul said. AI agents could manage 15% to 25% of all U.S. e-commerce sales. Those numbers would swamp existing payment infrastructure.
Blockchains with high throughput are the alternative. Kaul pointed to Aptos, Solana, and BNB Chain. Aptos can reportedly process 12,933 transactions per second, enough for the kind of micro-payments AI agents would generate. The standard for these is called x402, with individual payments averaging around $0.001.
Franklin Templeton has already moved in this direction. The firm acquired 250 Digital Asset Management and launched a dedicated Franklin Crypto division. The programmable nature of digital assets, Kaul said, is what suits them for an AI-driven future where machine-to-machine micropayments and identity verification become routine.
Partnerships with major payment networks are already setting micropayment standards, she added. High-throughput blockchains are not a theoretical talking point – they are the infrastructure layer for the next generation of commerce.
For investors, the takeaway is straightforward. The AI opportunity is not just about Nvidia or software stocks. Altcoins tied to efficient transaction processing could be the assets that actually power the autonomous economy. Diversifying into digital assets that benefit from AI expansion, Kaul said, is a way to future-proof a portfolio.
Franklin Templeton's bet is that the intersection of AI and crypto is where the next cycle's returns live. The firm is putting capital behind that view.
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