A new phase for XRP could emerge as autonomous software transitions from purchasing digital resources to completing real-world commercial tasks. Chandler Fang, co-founder of AI agent trust startup t54 and former Ripple product lead, outlined this potential shift, noting that an agent economy is developing across various payment values and settlement requirements.
According to Fang, machine-to-machine settlement is already established, with agents having completed more than a million transactions across the XRP Ledger (XRPL) without human intervention. Ripple has backed t54, participating in a $5 million seed round alongside Franklin Templeton.
Spending Mandates and Commercial Stages
The progression of agent payments involves distinct commercial stages:
- Digital Products: Agents discover, purchase, and consume digital resources within automated workflows. Ripple's XRPL AI Starter Kit, released on June 10, enables x402 payments using XRP or Ripple USD (RLUSD) for APIs, computing resources, and model inference.
- Real-World Spending: Agents receive limited spending authority constrained by budgets, merchant restrictions, and user-defined approval rules. Mastercard's Agent Pay for Machines program, launched on June 10 with participants including RippleX, extends this model to invoices and machine-driven business transactions.
- Financial Capacity: Agents that build reliable identity, transaction, and repayment histories could eventually secure credit rather than requiring pre-funding for individual tasks.
To support this ecosystem, consumers and businesses will require crypto wallets paired with tools that define spending rules, while merchants must provide prices, inventory, and payment interfaces readable by autonomous systems.
Settlement Needs and Invisible Adoption
Expanding agent activity will not necessarily require every policy check or price comparison to be recorded as an individual XRPL transaction. Participants can use XRPL Payment Channels for repeated payments, exchanging signed claims off-ledger before settling combined obligations. Payment assets will vary by transaction purpose, with XRP handling direct payments, routing, or final settlement, while RLUSD provides dollar-denominated value for specific purchases.
Long-term adoption could place agents inside treasury platforms, logistics systems, and financial applications where the software selects blockchain infrastructure in the background. Fang noted that long-term adoption does not require every person to open an XRPL wallet or consciously choose a blockchain.
Consequently, Fang argued that transaction volume alone provides an incomplete measure of agent adoption. More informative indicators will include repeat activity, merchant revenue, compliance with spending mandates, successful delivery, and effective dispute resolution, judging the network by the useful economic activity agents choose to settle on it.
