AI Will Need Blockchains: Grayscale Identifies 4 Networks to Watch
Grayscale sees the rise of AI agents as a new demand driver for public blockchains. Ethereum and Solana for payments, Worldcoin for proof of humanity, Bittensor for decentralized AI. Four networks are at the heart of this thesis published on August 11.
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Ethereum and Solana at the Heart of AI Agent Payments
Zach Pandl, head of research at Grayscale, identifies 3 areas where AI adoption calls for public blockchains: agentic finance, verifiable recording of computations and reputations, and open AI networks.
The first area mobilizes Ethereum and Solana.
To act on someone's behalf, an AI agent needs a programmable wallet capable of holding and deploying capital without intermediaries. This activity calls for micropayments, instant cross-border settlement, and automated risk management.
AI adoption will create demands that public blockchains are built for:
↳ Payments: @ethereum $ETH & @solana $SOL provide the settlement infrastructure for agentic finance.
↳ Identity: @worldnetwork $WLD can provide verifiable online identity to distinguish humans and agents.... pic.twitter.com/MZCC0FJb2R
--- Grayscale (@Grayscale) August 11, 2026
The current model, built around bank accounts, cards, and payment forms, is poorly suited for a machine that needs to settle a few cents to query an API.
A building block begins to address this need. On July 14, 2026, the Linux Foundation launched the x402 Foundation with 40 member organizations. Among them are Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Google, AWS, Stripe, Circle, and the Solana Foundation.
Developed by Coinbase, the protocol is now supported by the Linux Foundation. It gives a new utility to the HTTP 402 code, which had long remained unused: a server that requires payment responds 402 Payment Required. The AI agent then pays in stablecoins, resubmits its request, and gains access.
According to figures displayed by x402, the protocol shows 75.41 million transactions for $24.24 million in volume. The volume remains modest compared to the number of operations: about $0.32 per transaction.
These payments also require stablecoins available on the networks used. Ethereum hosts about $147 billion and Solana about $16 billion, according to DeFiLlama.
Worldcoin and Proof of Humanity Against AI Agents
For identity, Grayscale cites the World ID service from Worldcoin (WLD) as an example.
A company that delegates decisions to an AI must be able to verify which models, which data, and which rules produced them.
Online, users must also be able to distinguish human accounts from AI agents. And when an agent is tasked with a purchase or investment, it must rely on a reliable reputation history.
Grayscale advocates for the use of a neutral and transparent infrastructure to store this information. It must remain out of the control of a company or a state.
World ID relies on a verification performed in front of the Orb, a dedicated device that processes images of the iris and face.
World states that this data is encrypted, transferred to the user's phone, and then deleted from the device. The model raises a question that Grayscale's note does not elaborate on: the trust placed in a biometric device to establish proof of humanity. Design of the Orb. Source: Worldcoin
Bittensor Aims to Open the AI Market {#h-bittensor-veut-ouvrir-le-marche-de-l-ia}
The third part concerns the structure of the sector, with Bittensor (TAO).
Capital, computing power, and control are concentrated in a handful of laboratories and hyperscalers, along with governance, bias, and censorship issues that accompany this concentration.
Bittensor operates on a different logic. The network organizes into specialized sub-networks that produce digital resources: computation, inference, storage, or prediction. Miners produce these resources, validators rate their quality, sub-network creators define incentive rules, and stakers support the validators.
Grayscale contrasts this openness with the closed model of large laboratories. The challenge will be to attract enough computing power, developers, and users to compete with centralized infrastructures.
-- Price
Infrastructure Can Be Played Differently Than Through Tokens {#h-l-infrastructure-peut-se-jouer-autrement-que-par-les-tokens}
The adoption of AI agents still needs to transform these needs into significant economic flows to create real demand on these networks. The $24.24 million claimed by x402 is negligible compared to the $299.8 billion of stablecoins in circulation.
Buying ETH, SOL, WLD, or TAO thus amounts to accumulating two bets: that of adoption and that of the crypto market with its volatility.
For an investor, there is also a way to expose oneself to DeFi with a different risk structure. Stablecoins can be used on certain protocols to seek yield without directly depending on the appreciation of ETH or SOL.
It remains to be seen which strategies to use, on which protocols, and to understand the risks before committing capital.
The Club 25% is a private club of 150 investors managing their savings in stablecoins via DeFi, aiming for 15 to 25% per year, without trading, without volatility, dedicating a few hours each quarter.
How It Works in Practice:
- A public portfolio of $100,000 managed in real-time: all decisions are documented and explained.
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👉 Discover the DeFi Opportunities of Club 25% {#h-decouvrir-les-opportunites-defi-du-club-25}
AI agents still represent an emerging activity. However, the building blocks they will need are already starting to appear: programmable payments, human identity verification, and decentralized AI infrastructures. Grayscale bets that public blockchains will be at the heart of this new economy.
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