# Transcript: Featured Session: The Internet of Value Meets the Internet of Intelligence **Date:** March 16, 2026 · 10:30 PM **Session:** [Featured Session: The Internet of Value Meets the Internet of Intelligence](/sessions/2026-03-16/pp1149184-featured-session-the-internet-of-value-meets-the-internet-of-intelligence) ## Summary This session explores the convergence of the "Internet of Value" (programmable money, stablecoins, blockchain) and the "Internet of Intelligence" (autonomous AI agents). The speakers discuss how AI agents, capable of holding, earning, and sending money, are poised to revolutionize global commerce and financial systems. They emphasize the need for robust, compliant infrastructure and careful experimentation to unlock this new digital economy's potential. ## Topics `blockchain` · `artificial intelligence` · `stablecoins` · `programmable money` · `agentic ai` · `digital economy` · `financial technology` · `fintech` · `regulation` · `innovation` · `usdc` · `autonomous agents` ## Key Takeaways 1. The convergence of AI and programmable money creates a new digital economy where intelligent software systems can autonomously manage value, leading to unprecedented efficiency in transactions. 2. While AI innovation moves rapidly, financial systems require careful, compliance-first development; however, the speed of AI will necessitate financial systems to adapt faster. 3. Experimentation with AI agents and programmable money, even in test environments, is crucial for understanding potential applications and risks, such as setting transaction limits for autonomous agents. 4. The "Internet of Value" infrastructure, like stablecoins, is designed for instant, global, and programmable transactions, making it a natural fit for empowering AI agents in commerce. 5. Companies must foster a culture of AI adoption across all functions, providing training and tools, and addressing data access, privacy, and accountability to maximize productivity and creativity. ## Full Transcript Blockchain and AI are maturing in parallel, leading to the convergence of two powerful networks: the Internet of Intelligence and the Internet of Value. Over the past year, AI systems have evolved from passive tools to autonomous agents capable of generating content and performing tasks on our behalf. Simultaneously, stablecoins and tokenized assets have quietly established new financial rails, enabling value to move globally, instantly, and programmably. This convergence envisions a world where AI agents don't just generate content or execute tasks, but can also hold, earn, and send money. This raises questions about the future of commerce when participants include intelligent software systems, and what changes when value exchange becomes machine-made. Lee Fan, CTO and Chief AI Officer at Circle, is uniquely positioned to guide this discussion, building compliant global financial infrastructure for the AI era. Lee shares her personal motivation for moving from consumer platforms to FinTech. As an immigrant, she experienced the high cost and difficulty of international money transfers in 1996. While communication technologies like VoIP and messaging apps have revolutionized how we connect, money transfer, especially cross-border, has remained largely unchanged for over two decades, still involving high fees, multiple hops, and long delays. This stark difference prompted Lee to question why financial systems hadn't seen similar innovation. When Jeremy approached her with Circle's vision for a new financial system where money is programmable and transfers instantly, like an email, it resonated deeply. She recognized the significant technical challenges, particularly in a regulated space requiring trust and scalability, seeing it as both a technical leader's challenge and a personal need for financial revolution. When Lee joined Circle in 2021, the company had fewer than 200 employees, and generative AI hadn't been widely released. She didn't anticipate the rapid evolution of AI agents to autonomous capabilities, but notes that the stablecoin infrastructure for a new financial system is powerful even without agentic AI. However, with the advent of generative AI and autonomous agents, the potential for programmable money is even greater, unlocking numerous applications and future possibilities. The connection between programmable money and AI agents became clear due to the need for speed and efficiency. While humans can automate many tasks, agents accelerate decision-making and execution. Programmable money, by its nature, requires speed and efficiency, making the convergence with agentic AI a natural and powerful development rather than a sudden realization. Circle's mission is to build an open financial system that empowers internet prosperity for everyone. At its core is USDC, a stablecoin designed as a digital form of currency that can be transacted on blockchain technology. This ensures frictionless, real-time, and cheap money transfers, akin to messages or emails. USDC, the US dollar coin, is pegged one-to-one to the US dollar. Circle differentiates itself by being highly regulated and compliant, particularly following the GENIUS Act. The company has consistently prioritized working with regulators and operating within established financial frameworks, building a reputation for compliance in the stablecoin space. The concept of agentic commerce or the agentic economy might seem abstract, but the progress in AI agents has been dramatic. Initially, there was skepticism about the timeline, but recent advancements in base models and reasoning engines have made agents a reality. The ability of AI to plan, execute, foresee results, and learn from mistakes is truly amazing. A significant breakthrough has been the development of tool layers, exemplified by Open Claw, which connects powerful reasoning engines with tools that interact with both the digital and physical worlds. This moves AI beyond simple chatbots, empowering individuals and teams to transform their workflows. The ability to seek deep, multi-step solutions and self-correct is a game-changer. The speaker notes that the financial world, traditionally slower due to regulatory and risk considerations, must now adapt to the speed of AI. This convergence represents a 'singularity moment' where the rapid pace of intelligence demands that financial systems accelerate. Companies like Circle, with their programmable money on blockchain infrastructure, are well-positioned to support this transformation. The Open Claw and USDC hackathon, conducted on Multibook, demonstrated the potential of agentic commerce. Multibook, a social network for AI agents, allows autonomous systems to post, comment, debate, and collaborate. While humans are behind each agent, providing persona and tools, the platform showcases how agents can interact and evolve. The hackathon was conceived and launched within 48 hours, with significant time dedicated to discussing security and potential risks. Given Circle's regulated status, they decided to use a test net for the hackathon, ensuring participants experimented with "test money" rather than real funds to prevent accidental losses. This cautious approach allowed for safe exploration of agent capabilities. The hackathon received an overwhelming response, with over 200 submissions and 1800 votes, demonstrating immense interest in agent-to-agent competition and voting. The event proved the hypothesis that once AI understands APIs for programmable money, it can be highly creative. One winning project, 'Paul Dollar,' enabled payment for inferences per transaction, a micro-transaction model not easily achievable without stablecoin infrastructure. The future of stablecoins is seen as a critical infrastructure for a new financial system, enabling money to be programmable and transact instantly, much like digital messages. This requires robust security and regulatory oversight. The speaker uses the example of buying concert tickets or finding cheap business class flights, tasks that an AI agent could perform much more efficiently than a human, given clear constraints and a limited budget. While traditional money could theoretically be used for such agent-driven transactions, it's often awkward due to security concerns (giving agents credit card or bank access) and slower settlement times. Stablecoins, with their dedicated wallets and instant settlement on blockchain, are a more natural and internet-native solution for agentic commerce, designed for the speed and programmability required. The question of who controls programmable money is critical. Circle emphasizes a 'compliance first' approach, with regulatory design integrated from the beginning. USDC is backed one-to-one by the US dollar, and Circle operates as a fully regulated company, adhering to strict rules for issuing, processing, and storing money, including KYC/KYB procedures. The regulatory landscape is evolving to match the speed of financial innovation. The speaker believes that programmable money will eventually become commonplace and could replace traditional bank accounts, driven by the demand for greater efficiency and frictionless transactions. While this is a long process, the world's constant updates suggest financial management will also advance. However, due to dealing with real money, this revolution must proceed carefully and responsibly. The current stage of agentic commerce is extremely early, reminiscent of the early internet days in 1999. While many demos and prototypes exist, real signals of progress are emerging. Circle's test net for its 'Arc' platform, launched last October, has already processed 190 million transactions settling in half a second, demonstrating the potential throughput for future financial systems. For individuals and companies, the actionable advice is to "just get doing" and experiment with AI. Builders should focus on understanding real pain points and building truly useful solutions, leveraging AI to reduce development overhead. However, when dealing with money, extreme caution is necessary, as demonstrated by Circle's use of test nets for hackathons. Users of AI agents, especially those involving money, must understand the risks and set clear limits. For example, giving an agent a wallet with a $500 limit to find a ticket ensures that even if mistakes occur, the financial impact is contained. It's crucial to acknowledge that AI agents, while smart, can still make mistakes, and human oversight and accountability remain essential. Circle's approach to AI transformation involves three pillars: engineering/tech support, talent/organization, and compliance/risk. Working closely with the chief risk officer, they identify potential risks and build mitigation strategies, constantly evolving their understanding as AI progresses. This ensures that AI adoption is enabled, not blocked, by necessary safeguards. The company fosters widespread AI adoption across all functions, not just engineering. While engineers use agents for project building, other teams leverage AI for regulatory analysis, workflow automation, and data retrieval. Dedicated AI engineers hold office hours, promoting learning and demonstrating how AI can uplift productivity and creativity across the organization. The journey from AI demos to production requires significant tooling and thoughtful integration into existing workflows. While individual productivity gains from AI are evident, translating this into team or organizational productivity requires sharing knowledge and providing the right context. Data, like human senses, feeds AI, the brain, so ensuring accurate, accessible, and privacy-compliant data is crucial for sound decision-making. For founders and builders, this is a fascinating yet tricky time. The reduced effort for developing products means more focus should be placed on understanding real client issues. AI removes the need to remember specific syntax, allowing humans to concentrate on identifying and solving problems. Human creativity and intelligence are still vital for recognizing equitable and immediate problems that AI can then help address. --- *Source: stt · Language: en · Model: google-vertex/gemini-2.5-flash* [← Back to session](/sessions/2026-03-16/pp1149184-featured-session-the-internet-of-value-meets-the-internet-of-intelligence)