The founder of Natural argues that the total addressable market for agentic payments isn't just a replacement for Stripe (a Payment Service Provider). It encompasses the functions of a bank (storing balances), a PSP (processing transactions), and a network (like Visa), creating a fundamentally new, all-in-one infrastructure layer.

As AI agents begin to conduct economic work and transact with each other, they will create an "agentic economy." Our current financial system is ill-equipped for this future, lacking the ability to handle the billions of instant, global, and micro-scale transactions that will become commonplace.

While human payment habits are entrenched (e.g., Visa), AI agents have no such loyalty. They will ruthlessly optimize for cost and efficiency, making near-free, programmable stablecoin transactions the default choice for the 99%+ of future transactions they will conduct, sidestepping legacy financial infrastructure.

AI agents are gaining financial autonomy through virtual credit cards from major fintechs. This approach leverages existing global payment infrastructure, bypassing the need for new, agent-specific protocols. It signals agents are mature enough to operate within human-designed systems, accelerating their real-world integration.

The battle to become the payment layer for AI agents isn't just between crypto and traditional finance. Internet infrastructure providers like Cloudflare, which powers 20% of the web, are pivotal. Their decision on which payment rails to support could determine the winners in this emerging market.

The relationship between user and service provider is changing. Agents will soon sign up for platforms like Vercel, manage payments, and solve problems with zero human intervention. This transforms the service provider into a vendor for the agent itself, not just the human behind it.

Mercury's CEO sees the rise of AI agents performing financial transactions as an inevitable future. Rather than viewing it as a threat, Mercury is building tools like a CLI and APIs to become the go-to banking infrastructure for this emerging agent economy.

Current payment rails are not built for AI agents. Stripe's leadership argues the coming wave of automated, machine-driven commerce will necessitate new, high-throughput blockchains. This anticipated need for a new financial infrastructure to support agentic commerce is the core thesis behind their incubation of platforms like Tempo.

The financial system is unprepared for the coming wave of AI agents. These agents will perform tasks and require payment, creating trillions of micropayments. Current infrastructure from Stripe, Visa, or Mastercard cannot handle this volume, creating a massive opportunity for new protocols to facilitate the 'agent economy'.