Foreign media commentaries suggest that the crypto industry is shifting from serving human users to designing payment and execution infrastructure for AI agents. The article notes that recent moves by Ripple, MetaMask, and Mastercard—focused on settlement, wallet control, and payment networks, respectively—indicate this direction is moving from concept to early implementation.
Ripple targets machine-to-machine settlement
The article notes that Ripple is frequently mentioned because its XRPL AI Starter Kit has entered the early launch phase. The core idea is not to target traditional retail users, but to enable the XRP Ledger to support AI systems that require continuous operation.
For such systems to sustainably pay for services like APIs, data, and storage, they require faster confirmation speeds, more stable fees, and higher availability. The article argues that on-chain settlement capabilities with low latency and low cost may be more important than user-facing interaction experiences.
MetaMask turns the wallet into an execution layer.
According to the article, MetaMask’s Agent Wallet concept represents an alternative path: wallets are no longer merely tools for storing private keys and assets, but programmable control layers.
Under this vision, AI agents can hold funds and initiate trades within predefined limits and rules. This transforms the wallet’s role from merely safeguarding assets to an authorized, automated execution system.
Mastercard is also expanding into machine payments.
The article also notes that traditional payment networks are moving in a similar direction. Mastercard’s Agent Pay for Machines is seen as its attempt to address machine payment scenarios.
The article suggests that such networks may one day enable AI systems to purchase data, subscribe to services, or coordinate payments with other machines in real time, while still maintaining compliance and security requirements. If this trend continues, future financial infrastructure may serve not only transfers between people but also vast numbers of continuously running autonomous software systems.
Additional information: The advancements mentioned in the article primarily stem from project direction and product concepts; it does not disclose specific commercial scale, launch timeline, or actual transaction data.