Citrini Research says agentic finance signals a new era for crypto investing

Citrini Research thinks the next big crypto investor might not be a person at all.

In a report titled “Breaking The Wall,” published October 8, 2026, the firm argues that agentic finance will fundamentally reshape the investment landscape. Agentic finance means AI agents that carry out financial tasks on their own, and Citrini says this shift will be anchored on blockchain infrastructure.

What Citrini is actually arguing

The report points to blockchains as the infrastructure for AI agents to operate on. Citrini argues that blockchain development over the past 15 years has produced a robust framework for programmable financial activity that runs 24/7, which the firm calls crucial for keeping AI agents operationally efficient.

The second pillar of the thesis is tokenization, the process of representing real-world assets such as equities and Treasuries as tokens on a blockchain. Citrini identifies tokenization as a pivotal trend and frames it as the bridge between traditional finance and the crypto ecosystem.

The report ties these threads together directly. It connects the rising adoption of AI agents with the flow of tokenized US stocks across chains such as Robinhood Chain and Solana. Citrini also credits the surge in consumer-facing AI agents with pushing these tools toward mainstream acceptance, making it easier to move tokenized assets across different platforms and applications.

The regulatory tailwind

The centerpiece of Citrini’s regulatory argument is the SEC’s conditional five-year “innovation exemption” for tokenized securities venues, announced on September 17, 2026.

The report also points to significant moves from Coinbase involving stock perpetual futures, which are derivative contracts that track the price of an asset without a fixed expiration date. Citrini singles out Coinbase as a primary beneficiary of the evolving tokenized asset landscape, with the reasoning centered on the exchange’s compliant infrastructure for handling both tokenized assets and futures.

Crypto tokens and associated stocks saw a notable uptick in performance after the report was published.

Who is behind the call

Citrini Research was founded in 2023. It has approximately 263,000 subscribers on Substack.

What this means for investors and the industry

The most direct read is on Coinbase. An exchange that already has regulated infrastructure for tokenized assets and futures would be positioned to serve AI agents that need a legitimate venue to trade. That is the core of why the report names Coinbase specifically.

The SEC exemption offers a clearer framework for tokenized trading venues. Investors can track how many venues operate under the SEC’s innovation exemption, whether tokenized US stock flows keep growing on chains like Robinhood Chain and Solana, and how Coinbase’s stock perpetual futures business develops.