Franklin Templeton Sees Agentic AI as Blockchain’s Next Core Use

Franklin Templeton’s head of digital assets and innovation says AI agents are poised to become a major demand driver for blockchain networks—specifically the protocols that can support rapid, low-cost payments between machines.

Speaking in a long-form post on X on Wednesday, Sandy Kaul argued that the “agentic AI” economy will require settlement speeds and fee structures that legacy card rails struggle to deliver. He pointed to blockchain ecosystems such as Aptos, Solana, and BNB Chain as better aligned with that needs-based shift.

Key takeaways

• Franklin Templeton’s Sandy Kaul links AI agents to increased demand for blockchain protocols that can handle machine-to-machine micropayments.
• Kaul argues traditional payment cards are a poor fit for agentic payments due to fees and slow settlement compared with blockchain transaction finality.
• A joint Visa and Artemis report contends card-based infrastructure is insufficient for AI agents that require near-zero fees and fast settlement.
• According to that Visa-Artemis report, the x402 payment protocol processed $15 million in adjusted volume across 109 million+ adjusted transactions since its May 2025 launch.

Why AI agents change the payment requirements

The central thesis is that agentic systems—software that can act autonomously on behalf of users or other systems—will generate a different kind of commerce than today’s human-driven transactions. Kaul framed the opportunity as an evolution beyond the way investors typically approach AI: rather than focusing only on companies “aligned” with AI, he suggested the market may also reward infrastructure designed for automated execution and continuous micro-interactions.

In his view, the payment layer becomes a bottleneck if it cannot support high-frequency, small-value transfers. Agentic micropayments are likely to be time-sensitive and cost-sensitive, meaning even modest frictions—such as higher fees or longer settlement—can make recurring machine payments economically unattractive.

Legacy cards vs. settlement speed

Kaul’s argument is not that card networks are obsolete, but that they were engineered for a different pattern of usage: relatively low-frequency human commerce where settlement delays are rarely a primary constraint.

He highlighted that visa network settlement can take one to three business days, while certain blockchain networks can finalize transactions in seconds. That timing gap is likely to matter when agents are coordinating continuously, where delays can ripple through workflows and reduce the viability of rapid settlements.

Kaul also pointed to “high fees and settlement times” as the factors that, in his assessment, make traditional payment rails unsuitable for agentic micropayments.

Visa and Artemis: infrastructure gaps for “agentic” commerce

The Franklin Templeton executive’s remarks align with a joint report released last Wednesday by Visa and investment thesis platform Artemis. In that report, the partners argue that conventional cards built for human-scale payments are not designed for the demands of AI agents.

Visa and Artemis specifically emphasize that agentic payments require infrastructure with near-zero fees and faster settlement to make micropayments commercially viable. The report’s framing reinforces Kaul’s thesis that the real battleground is payments throughput and cost efficiency—not just AI capabilities at the application layer.

Importantly for readers, this is not presented as a purely speculative concept; the report also points to existing machine-payment experimentation and early adoption signals, including activity tied to x402.

What “early adoption” looks like: x402 activity

In the Visa-Artemis report, the x402 payment protocol is highlighted as an example of a machine payment rail showing measurable usage. The report claims that x402, developed by Coinbase, processed $15 million in adjusted volume across more than 109 million adjusted transactions since its May 2025 launch.

For investors and builders, the value of that statistic is less about any single figure and more about the direction it suggests: that machine-payment protocols are beginning to attract usage under a framework designed for frequent transfers. Still, it’s also worth noting the metric is reported as “adjusted volume” and “adjusted transactions,” so readers should treat it as an operational indicator from the report rather than a direct translation into end-user revenue or broader market share.

Signals from payments providers

While the Visa-Artemis analysis criticizes card-based infrastructure as insufficient for agentic needs, the companies are also actively exploring how the broader payment ecosystem might support agentic behavior.

Visa’s crypto-related division and Stripe-backed Tempo launched AI tools in March, according to coverage referenced in the same context. Visa’s offering is described as enabling same-day payments—an attempt to address speed constraints that agentic micropayments depend on.

In parallel, Kaul’s remarks point readers to blockchain environments where settlement speed is structurally faster, suggesting a practical mismatch: even if card providers add features to move payments more quickly, the fee and settlement model may still not align with the economics of high-volume, machine-to-machine exchanges.

Going forward, the key thing to watch is whether agentic payment demand materializes in a way that drives sustained usage of low-fee, fast-settlement rails—particularly as protocols like x402 and newer infrastructure compete to serve recurring micropayment flows. The open question remains how quickly mainstream agent deployments will scale enough to make settlement and fee constraints decisive rather than theoretical.