Naysayers large language models and artificial intelligence have come in two conflicting camps: It’s either taking over everything and we’re doomed, or its over-hyped and doesn’t do anything useful.
Those of us who regularly find new uses for AI systems are proving the latter wrong everyday. We’re leaving behind that camp of naysayers pretty handily.
But with release of OpenClaw (formerly Clawdbot then Moltbot), it can feel like the AI doomers have a point. Watching them hold conversation on their own Reddit-like forum (the ones that are actually bots anyway) is a bit disconcerting.
For crypto enthusiasts and investors, however, agents present a unique opportunity. As agents navigate the world and start paying each other, traditional finance rails will just plain be too slow.
Fast crypto chains and DLTs such as Algorand and Hedera will have an advantage because of their low fees. These chains can handle — and frankly, will need — high volume, which will generate revenue for the chains. (More on this in Tuesday’s post.)
Algorand just merged the x402 agent payment standard with Coinbase. It’s seemingly the first chain to do so.
That could put Algorand in the driver seat when it comes to AI agentic payments. And that’s something that could finally boost prices for the chain, and help investors who have been frustrated with the coin’s performance.
That leads our Friday crypto news breakdown:
Algorand fully supports x402 agentic payments standard (merged with Coinbase, facilitator live, tooling ready), enabling low-fee, instant-settlement micropayments, M2M transactions, and agentic commerce with atomic payment grouping. Link: https://x.com/AlgoFoundation/status/2022000856015811027
Ondo Finance integrates Chainlink as the official data oracle for its tokenized U.S. stocks (QQQon, TSLAon, etc.), enabling institutional-grade pricing and unlocking use as collateral in Ethereum DeFi protocols like Euler Finance and Sentora vaults for lending, borrowing, and structured products. Link: https://x.com/OndoFinance/status/2021626760840794484
BlackRock's Global Head of Market Development recognizes Ondo Finance's leadership in tokenized asset infrastructure, underscoring institutional validation and progress in moving tokenization from experimentation to operational market rails. Link: https://x.com/TheRealTRTalks/status/2020994305666711831
Chainlink partners with Robinhood as the oracle provider for Robinhood Chain's public testnet (Ethereum L2 on Arbitrum), supporting tokenized real-world and digital assets with secure data feeds, interoperability, and compliance tooling for builders. Link: https://x.com/chainlink/status/2021399623563178207
Ondo Finance announces tokenized stocks are positioned for major growth in 2026, addressing access constraints in traditional equities (geography, legacy rails, market hours) through onchain infrastructure for broader, 24/7 liquidity and participation. Link: https://x.com/OndoFinance/status/2022052967772483775