Franklin Templeton says investors chasing the artificial intelligence boom through stocks alone may miss what comes next. Sandy Kaul, the asset manager’s head of digital assets and innovation, argued that gaining exposure to autonomous AI agents transacting onchain will also require owning cryptocurrencies and altcoins.
The view appeared in an article titled “Agentic AI—The Killer Use Case for Blockchain and Crypto,” published Tuesday on Franklin Templeton’s verified X account. Kaul wrote that “in order to capture the value of decentralized networks and businesses, investors will need to buy the cryptocurrencies and alt coins being issued by those entities.” She added that those assets “are likely to become key holdings in portfolios, especially for those looking to capture the emerging agentic AI opportunity.”
Why Kaul says the usual AI investing playbook may not be enough
Kaul framed her case against the way most investors currently position for AI. She wrote that most investors trying to capture AI growth today buy shares of AI-aligned companies and related verticals, then asked whether that same playbook will work for agentic AI.
Her central argument is mechanical rather than thematic. Legacy payment rails, she wrote, cannot efficiently support machine-to-machine micropayments. A standard card transaction “averages 2%-3% plus a flat fee of approximately $0.30,” while AI agent payments “average $0.001 to purchase a single second of compute or a data query.” In that context, she described credit card and banking infrastructure as “unsuited for agentic micropayments.”
That mismatch, in her framing, pushes agent transactions onto blockchains, where each recorded transaction requires payment in the token of the underlying network.
Estimates, infrastructure examples, and machine payments
Kaul cited external estimates that place agentic commerce “as high as $3-$5 trillion by 2030.” She also said 38% of organizations report they will have AI agents working as team members alongside humans by 2028.
As supporting examples, she pointed to Coinbase’s x402 payment standard, which she said has since been transferred to the Linux Foundation. She also referenced a Machine Payments Protocol from Stripe and Visa, presenting both as signs that “software can pay software.”
Market view, not research, and no token recommendations
TheDefiant described the piece as a first-party market view rather than a research finding. Franklin Templeton included extensive risk disclosures with the article, stating that “concepts discussed may not come to pass” and warning that crypto investments carry the risk of total loss.
The article did not identify any specific token as a recommendation. Kaul mentioned SOL, Solana’s token, only as an example of a network fee asset.