Cathie Wood says smart investors need to start watching where AI agents spend money

That's where he sees a role for crypto.

Chalom said open blockchains such as Ethereum ETH$2,681.93 could provide a common financial network that different agents, apps and companies can use. Instead of every AI company building its own closed payment system, agents could move money across a shared network without needing one technology company or bank to sit in the middle of every transaction.

That also gives Wood's idea of “following the agents” a financial dimension. If agents begin carrying out more tasks on their own, investors could watch not only which AI models and software they choose, but also how they pay for things and which financial networks they use.

BlackRock made a similar connection in a September paper examining the overlap between AI and digital assets. The asset manager argued that AI agents could create new demand for payment systems built for machines. An agent might need to pay for an API call, buy data from another service or rent computing power, all without waiting for a person to approve each transaction.

Stablecoins and blockchains could be one way to handle those payments, BlackRock said.

Stablecoins can move around the clock, while blockchain-based payment protocols can let software send small payments directly to other software. Coinbase's (COIN) x402, for example, is designed to let machines pay for online services such as data or API access.