Circle co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire has published a long essay titled Agentic Economy, arguing that the AI agent economy and the onchain economy should not be viewed as separate tracks. In his framing, they are two parts of the same emerging economic system. AI supplies what he calls machine-based intelligence and labor, while blockchains, stablecoins, and smart contracts supply machine-based property rights, payments, settlement, and credit.
Allaire says AI agents can only act as independent economic participants when those layers are combined. He breaks the proposed agentic economy into three layers: a base money layer where stablecoins function as the unit of account and final settlement tool; a middle economic operating system layer where programmable smart contracts handle coordination, contracting, and value exchange; and a top execution layer where AI and cloud computing perform actual work.
According to Allaire, all three layers run as software on top of the internet and are starting to remake geographically bounded institutions. He describes that shift as stablecoins replacing national banking systems, smart contracts moving enforcement from national courts into globally executable code, and AI agents replacing local labor with borderless work.
Allaire frames AI agents and onchain finance as one system
Circle co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire has released a long essay, Agentic Economy, saying the AI agent economy and the onchain economy are not parallel tracks but two components of the same new economic system.
In his description, AI brings “machine-based intelligence and labor,” while blockchains, stablecoins, and smart contracts bring “machine-based property rights, payments, settlement, and credit.” He argues that only after those pieces are combined can AI agents operate as independent participants in economic activity.
He breaks the model into three layers
Allaire divides the agentic economy into three layers:
- the base layer, or money layer, where stablecoins serve as the unit of account and the final means of settlement;
- the middle layer, described as an economic operating system, where programmable smart contracts handle coordination, contracting, and value exchange;
- the top layer, or agent execution layer, where artificial intelligence and cloud computing carry out actual work.
He says all three layers run in software on top of the internet.
Essay points to changes in traditional institutions
According to Allaire, those layers are each reshaping geographically bound institutions: stablecoins replace national banking systems, smart contracts move enforcement from national courts into globally executable code, and AI agents replace local labor with borderless work.
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