According to @scottshics, he has begun a thread to share the backstory of a whitepaper focused on agentic payments and AI agents transacting. Source: x.com/scottshics/status/1987536798269260002; x.com/GoKiteAI/status/1984254607069999116 He states the catalyst was early February 2025 after being shocked by DeepSeek’s reasoning performance, leading him to conclude that AI agents will act and transact and that existing infrastructure is not ready. Source: x.com/scottshics/status/1987536798269260002; x.com/GoKiteAI/status/1984254607069999116 He reports initial pushback from investors and his team, noting many saw payments as a solved problem and AI agents as science fiction. Source: x.com/scottshics/status/1987536798269260002; x.com/GoKiteAI/status/1984254607069999116 He situates this work before milestones he lists as A2A in April, x402 in May, and a Payment hype phase from August onward in 2025, framing a clear timeline for the AI-agent payment narrative. Source: x.com/scottshics/status/1987536798269260002; x.com/GoKiteAI/status/1984254607069999116 He confirms there were multiple internal debates on whether agentic payments were the right direction. Source: x.com/scottshics/status/1987536798269260002; x.com/GoKiteAI/status/1984254607069999116 He does not name any specific cryptocurrencies, tokens, or platforms in this update. Source: x.com/scottshics/status/1987536798269260002; x.com/GoKiteAI/status/1984254607069999116 The dated sequence of A2A (April), x402 (May), and Payment hype (August onward) provides reference points traders can use to map the 2025 AI-payment narrative. Source: x.com/scottshics/status/1987536798269260002; x.com/GoKiteAI/status/1984254607069999116

According to @scottshics, Kite is expanding its team in San Francisco, hiring Software Engineers and remote Blockchain Infra Engineers to accelerate its agentic payments mission, with roles explicitly focused on core infrastructure buildout (source: @scottshics on X, Oct 19, 2025). According to @scottshics, the company is building what it calls the first Layer-1 blockchain for agentic payments and an Agent Passport system designed to give autonomous AI agents verifiable identity, programmable governance, and seamless payments for composable economic interactions (source: @scottshics on X, Oct 19, 2025). According to @scottshics, traders tracking AI-crypto infrastructure should note Kite’s stated focus areas of identity, governance, and payments rails for AI agents as potential catalysts to monitor for development updates and ecosystem traction in the agent economy theme (source: @scottshics on X, Oct 19, 2025).

According to @DeepLearningAI, Andrew Ng highlights the dangers of brinkmanship between China, the U.S., and Taiwan over chip design and fabrication, signaling supply chain and compute availability risk that traders watch across semiconductor and AI infrastructure exposure. Source: DeepLearning.AI, The Batch, Sep 29, 2025, hubs.la/Q03Ll5wf0; DeepLearning.AI on X, Sep 29, 2025. According to @DeepLearningAI, the latest issue also reports Google launching AP2 for agentic payments, a study on what ChatGPT users want, AI agents engaging with online sports betting, and GAIN-RL that speeds RL fine-tuning using model-driven ordering. Source: DeepLearning.AI, The Batch, Sep 29, 2025, hubs.la/Q03Ll5wf0; DeepLearning.AI on X, Sep 29, 2025. According to @DeepLearningAI, these topics map to trading themes including semiconductor supply chain sensitivity, emerging agentic payment rails, AI usage patterns, and reinforcement learning tooling that market participants track for headline-driven volatility across equities, AI-linked assets, and digital-asset sentiment. Source: DeepLearning.AI, The Batch, Sep 29, 2025, hubs.la/Q03Ll5wf0; DeepLearning.AI on X, Sep 29, 2025.

According to @LexSokolin, Coinbase could host a marketplace for AI agent financial connection points, with Coinbase and Stripe expected to define this area in the short term. source: https://twitter.com/LexSokolin/status/1965686202419515604 He explicitly called on Nevermined_ai and peaq to participate in building these agentic finance rails on Coinbase. source: https://twitter.com/LexSokolin/status/1965686202419515604 He referenced a CoinbaseDev post as context for the initiative, signaling active developer engagement around AI agent payment and onchain finance interfaces. source: https://x.com/CoinbaseDev/status/1965445897489428869; https://twitter.com/LexSokolin/status/1965686202419515604

According to Lex Sokolin, leading Web2 AI firms like OpenAI are partnering with established fintech players such as Stripe to secure dominance in agentic payments and commerce, leaving minimal opportunities for new entrants. Sokolin highlights that while Web2 alliances are consolidating the payment landscape, Web3 DeFi is set to power AI-driven commerce, especially as decentralized AI solutions emerge from within the Web3 ecosystem. This structural shift suggests increased relevance and potential trading opportunities for DeFi tokens and projects facilitating AI-powered transactions, including Nevermined_io. Traders should monitor developments in AI-DeFi integrations, as these could drive demand and liquidity for related crypto assets (Source: Lex Sokolin via Twitter, May 9, 2025).