When one of the world’s largest asset managers starts calling something a “killer use case,” the market tends to pay attention. Sandy Kaul, head of digital assets and innovation at Franklin Templeton, published a LinkedIn post titled “Agentic AI – the killer use case for blockchain & crypto,” arguing that autonomous software agents will create massive demand for blockchain infrastructure.

The core thesis is deceptively simple. AI agents that operate independently, making purchases, hiring services, and exchanging value without human intervention, need a payment system built for machines. Traditional finance wasn’t designed for that.

Why traditional payments don’t work for AI agents

Kaul’s argument centers on the need for low-cost, programmable payment systems that can handle micropayments between autonomous agents. Public blockchains, Kaul contends, already offer the exact features this new economy requires: rapid transaction settlement, cryptographic identity verification, and native digital assets that can be programmed to move without human authorization.

Franklin Templeton manages approximately $1.7 trillion in assets and has been steadily building out its blockchain strategy throughout 2025 and 2026, including tokenized money market funds and institutional partnerships with firms like MoonPay and Ondo Finance.

The convergence thesis gains momentum

Kaul isn’t alone in this view. Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire has echoed similar sentiments, framing AI agents and programmable digital money as a unified technological advancement rather than two separate trends happening to coexist.

As AI agents become more capable and autonomous, they’ll need to transact, negotiate, and settle payments with other agents at machine speed. That creates organic demand for native blockchain tokens to facilitate these activities and cover transaction fees.

What this means for investors

If the agentic AI thesis plays out, demand for blockchains optimized for high-throughput, low-cost transactions should increase substantially. Franklin Templeton isn’t a crypto-native fund talking its book. It’s a legacy asset manager essentially telling its investor base that blockchain infrastructure is a prerequisite for the AI economy.

If autonomous agents need native digital assets to pay for services and cover network fees, that creates genuine, non-speculative demand for certain tokens — because software literally cannot function without them.