Cathie Wood says smart investors need to start watching where AI agents spend money
Cathie Wood suggested investors may increasingly need to “follow the agents” as AI software begins choosing services and making purchases. That raises questions about spending limits, user control, portability and payment infrastructure. SharpLink co-CEO Joseph Chalom argues open blockchains could provide shared financial rails, while a BlackRock paper says agents may create demand for machine-to-machine payments using stablecoins and blockchain protocols. Coinbase’s x402 is one example; CEO Brian Armstrong said Grok is currently the leading agentic-trading client on Coinbase, without providing figures. Crypto faces competition from payment efforts by Stripe, Visa, Google and OpenAI, and traditional systems are likely to remain important. Tracking agents’ transactions could help investors assess whether blockchains and stablecoins gain real-world use.
