AI Agents as Independent Economic Actors Is ‘Not a Stretch’ for 5-Year Timeline, According to Andreessen Horowitz

Andreessen Horowitz closed its 5th crypto money with a thesis that sounds similar subject fiction: autonomous AI agents holding crypto wallets, earning income, paying for compute and operating arsenic autarkic economical actors wrong 5 years.

The Self-Sustaining Agent Thesis

The transportation described agents generating worth "by creating services, by penning software, by creating content, by fundamentally becoming an worker for, for different cause oregon for a human." Some teams are already "building a harness that gives an cause the quality to wage for its ain compute oregon immoderate resources it needs to proceed to exist." The caller acknowledged it "sounds insane," portion arguing that "given the exponential curve connected which AI is presently on, it is not a agelong to judge that successful 5 years, the models volition beryllium truthful astute and truthful susceptible that really going retired and creating worth successful a capitalist nine is thing that they tin precise good do." A follow-up question: "Are they going to beryllium moving for america oregon are we going to beryllium moving for them?" The reply offered was "maybe a operation of the two."

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Why LPs Bought In

During the $2.2 cardinal raise, LPs showed appetite. "everyone is precise focused connected AI these days." Crypto's defensibility: "you cannot vibe codification USDC, you cannot person a play task and extremity up gathering thing similar Hyperliquid." Several LPs asked astir backing superior calls successful stablecoins and are "starting to modulation immoderate of their ain existing concern on-chain."

The Infrastructure Is Already Forming

Recent woody travel supports the thesis. State Street (NYSE:STT) and Galaxy launched a tokenized liquidity expanse fund, with tokenized money servicing capabilities planned from Luxembourg by extremity of 2026. BNY Mellon (NYSE:BK), Finstreet, and the ADI Foundation are gathering organization integer plus custody successful Abu Dhabi. Western Union (NYSE:WU) launched USDPT, a regulated dollar-backed stablecoin connected Solana, partnering with Fireblocks.