- In today’s CEO Daily: The agentic economy is starting to take shape.
- The big leadership story: United Airlines’ ‘premiumization’ strategy is paying off.
- The markets: Mixed globally as chipmakers continue to slide.
- Plus: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune.
Good morning. How do you plan to move your company’s money when AI agents start doing the buying and selling for you? And how can you make sure that agentic commerce is accurate, compliant, fast, and smart? Those decisions are now being shaped. A year after the GENIUS Act passed, a wave of new stablecoins, platforms, and partnerships point to how the ecosystem is taking shape.
The most compelling scenario I’ve seen so far comes from Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire, who last week published an 18,500-word treatise called The Agentic Economy. (There are several iterations available, including a 60-second version.) He argues that the “planetary nervous system for information” must now be matched by a “circulatory system for value.” If AI is the new operating system for intelligence, blockchain is the new operating system for the economy. In other words, Allaire writes, “an economy run by software agents must run on software money, software contracts, and software governance, or it cannot run at all.”
Allaire, of course, makes the case for Circle’s USDC, a regulated stablecoin that can be redeemed 1:1 for U.S. dollars, along with the growing ecosystem around it. Among other things, the global fintech company just got approval to establish a federally regulated national trust bank. There’s a lot happening across this space that leaders should pay attention to:
Stablecoin innovation: You may know Tether, the popular and controversial stablecoin issuer from El Salvador with ties to the family of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. (Here’s a terrific feature from my colleague Jeff John Roberts.) New offerings are emerging. Keep an eye on Open Standard, which is partnering with Stripe, Visa, Blackrock and about 140 other firms to launch a new stablecoin this year called Open USD. Instead of the reserve income being held by a single issuer, it’s shared with partners who can also mint and redeem tokens at no cost. Why would consumer brands like Walmart, Amazon and Starbucks launch their own stablecoins? It could let them bypass credit card fees to securely settle transactions at a fraction of the cost.
New ecosystems: The winners of today might not dominate the onchain economy of tomorrow. In Visa’s second-quarter earnings call last week, CEO Ryan McInerney predicted agentic commerce “will expand our addressable market,” with stablecoins and blockchain showing “significant opportunities” for growth. Visa launched a new platform last week to provide stablecoin services to more than 200 million merchants. SWIFT, the network linking more than 11,500 financial institutions, now has a blockchain-based ledger. Circle’s Allaire, meanwhile, has told me about the power of building a full-stack platform, from the open-source Arc blockchain infrastructure to nanopayments for agents in the application layer, from coins to compliance.
Winners: The landscape keeps shifting, from Stripe’s bid to buy PayPal to new currencies and platforms. Guidelines for managing agentic commerce are evolving as the technology is put to use. Look at who is attracting respected talent to their teams, top developers to their platform and top partners into their ecosystem? Putting a toll booth on a popular and safe highway that everyone wants to use is better than trying to monetize access to a neighborhood that people don’t know or trust. Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at [email protected]
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