Miami Beach, Florida — Executives from Trust Wallet and Mesh said on Thursday that crypto wallets are being rebuilt for AI agents, as companies race to provide autonomous software with a way to store value, prove identity, and conduct transactions on-chain.
Arjun Mukherjee, Chief Technology Officer of CoinDesk Miami, said this shift is driven by what he calls the cold start problem of AI agents.
He said: "If an agent's wallet is not funded, it can do nothing. Without a wallet and without value to transact, it's difficult for an agent to act. The emergence of cryptocurrency has changed all of this. Cryptocurrency has found its own market positioning and its killer application."
Mesh has built a connectivity layer linking exchanges, wallets, smart contracts, and decentralized exchanges, and has launched a product called Smart Funding, which routes payments across chains, networks, accounts, and tokens for both human and agent users.
Felix Fan, CEO of Trust Wallet, said the company has adopted a deliberate division of labor in its agent integration. In its consumer-facing cryptocurrency application, users hold their own keys, while agents play a supportive role to streamline operations and reduce user friction without assuming custody or control of the keys.
Fan stated: "Users always retain control of their keys and all permissions. Each step requires their authorization." The role of the agent on the consumer side is to "accelerate the process and help them better understand how to operate on-chain."
On the developer front, Trust Wallet has taken a more proactive stance. The company recently launched an agent toolkit that enables agents to autonomously conduct trades, transfers, and other on-chain operations, and is implementing Ethereum Improvement Proposal EIP-8004, which aims to provide agents with on-chain identities and credit-score-like mechanisms.
Fan said: "In terms of cryptocurrency applications, we are using AI to give humans superpowers; and for developers, we are enabling agents to act like humans."
Regarding the issue of responsibility, Mukherjee said that Mesh is concerned about introducing friction from traditional finance into proxy payments.
"Artificial intelligence should enhance human judgment, not replace human responsibility or accountability," he said, adding that the institution deploying the AI system is responsible for its actions.
Both experts stated that they expect AI labs to launch their own wallets. Fan noted that X has already publicly promoted X Money, and “Grok will likely have a wallet built in.”
Fan said: "Claude and all these players could potentially take the field tomorrow to run the chain offense. So we're happy to take on this challenge."
Mukherjee said that Mesh’s strategy is to remain neutral toward wallets, networks, and tokens.
He said, "If there is Web3-based e-commerce on any network, any token, and any associated fund, we will all benefit."