Franklin Templeton: Agentic AI is Crypto's 'Killer Use Case'

Franklin Templeton says agentic AI will be crypto's "killer use case." This is according to a new paper from Sandy Kaul, Head of Digital Assets and Innovation at the company, which manages nearly $1.8 trillion in assets. Here's the thing: Agentic AI is software that acts, pays, and decides on your behalf without constant human supervision. It goes beyond simple chatbots, capable of shopping, booking, and paying for things autonomously. The paper argues that blockchain will be essential for agentic AI. Traditional payment networks cannot handle the high volume of transactions these AI agents will generate. Blockchain networks, however, can record and settle transactions simultaneously and much faster. For example, some high-speed chains can process thousands of transactions per second, comparable to or exceeding Visa's recording speeds, but also settling at that pace. This speed is crucial because AI agents are expected to account for 15% to 25% of all U.S. e-commerce sales by 2030. The bottom line is that the growth of agentic AI could drive significant blockchain adoption.