Franklin Templeton argues that agentic AI will accelerate crypto and blockchain adoption for machine-to-machine transactions.
AI & Agents ·
Sandy Kaul, Head of Digital Assets and Innovation at Franklin Templeton, contends that agentic AI—autonomous systems capable of perceiving their environment, devising plans, and executing multi-step tasks without constant human oversight—will drive significant adoption of cryptocurrencies and blockchain infrastructure. Franklin Templeton argues that while traditional investment strategies have focused on AI-aligned equities, this approach may be insufficient to capture the emergence of agentic systems, which are expected to shift from reactive chatbots to autonomous agents handling complex transactions.
Agentic AI is anticipated to accelerate machine-to-machine commerce, with estimates placing agentic commerce at $3–$5 trillion by 2028. Organizations are forecast to deploy AI agents as team members by 2028, and these agents will increasingly handle transactions—initiating, tracking, and fulfilling tasks independently. Within enterprise software, such autonomous execution is expected to grow substantially, potentially accounting for up to 15% of day-to-day decisions. This operational model creates demand for micropayments between software systems for compute resources and API calls, a function where decentralized networks and digital assets could play a critical role.
The precise mechanisms by which blockchain infrastructure would integrate into agentic AI workflows remain partially outlined in the available material. Similarly, the extent to which cryptocurrency adoption would materialize—or which specific use cases would emerge as dominant—has not been detailed.