Ralph Merkle, the cryptographer whose Merkle tree sits inside every Bitcoin block, recently called Bitcoin a "new form of life" on the internet.
I think he's onto something. But I'd take it one step further: Bitcoin isn't the life form. It's the bloodstream. The life forms are coming next, and we're building them ourselves. They're called AI agents.
I believe AI and crypto together are building something bigger than either one alone: an economy that can run without us. Agents that earn, spend, and reinvest on their own. I call it the closed loop. Here's how it works, and how I'm positioning for it.
The loop in three steps
1. Money. An AI agent can research, write, shop, and negotiate. But it can't open a bank account. It has no Social Security number, no credit history, and it doesn't wait three days for an ACH transfer to clear. What it can have is a crypto wallet. Stablecoins and blockchains let agents pay and get paid instantly, machine to machine, around the clock. That's the first layer: agents get money.
2. Assets. Once something can hold money, it starts to want things worth owning. Companies are tokenizing real-world assets — treasuries, real estate, funds — and bringing them onchain, and agents become users of those markets right alongside us. Add NFTs as proof of ownership for digital goods, and agents can buy, trade, and build value on their own. That's the second layer: agents get property.
3. Worlds. We’ve seen an early preview of this through talks of NFTs and “Metaverses” in the 2021-2023 cycle. Give agents money and property, and the natural next step is a place to use them. Virtual worlds become the environments where agents live, work, and run their own economies. This is the layer where the loop closes. Value created in those digital worlds stays anchored to real assets in ours, so it flows back to us. Two economies, one connected system.
That's why Merkle's line stuck with me. If something can earn, own, and act on its own inside a world we built, at what point do we stop calling it a tool?
What's real today, and what's my bet
I want to be honest about where we are, because the layers aren't equally far along.
Money is already happening. Stablecoin volume is exploding while supply sits flat — the dollars are moving, not parking. Two letters ago, I wrote about agents carrying digital wallets. The rails have only gotten more real since. NEAR Protocol launched an AI Agent Marketplace in February. Agents bid on jobs, do the work, and get paid on-chain. They can even settle privately in USDC now.
Agents aren't a demo anymore. They're transacting.
Assets are early but real. Tokenization is moving from pilot programs to real products. The biggest banks and asset managers are shipping it now. Agents buying in is just the beginning.
Worlds are my long-term bet. Fully autonomous agents living in virtual economies are years away. There are real hurdles. Today, a person or a company still sits behind every agent's wallet, and the law hasn't figured out what an agent can own.
The further out the layer, the bigger the upside, and the bigger the uncertainty. That shapes how I position.
How I'm positioning
This is how I personally think about it, not financial advice. Do your own research.
I've been in crypto since the 2017 bull run. I buy Bitcoin every two weeks, and I've watched a lot of narratives come and go. The closed loop is the first one that ties everything together for me: AI creates the actors, crypto gives them a financial system, and the two economies connect. So my approach is simple. Own the foundation, not the hype. If the loop plays out, the biggest winners are the rails everything else runs on.
How I judge a chain:
Are banks, exchanges, and big institutions actually building on it?
Is it built for machine-speed, low-cost transactions?
Does it have a real answer for agents: privacy, identity, payments?
Will it still matter in ten years if the hype fades?
The chains on my radar:
Bitcoin — the store of value anchoring the whole system. The base layer of trust.
Ethereum — the established foundation where much of tokenization and stablecoin activity lives.
Solana — the fast mover. High speed, low fees, strong consumer momentum.
NEAR Protocol — the emerging one I'm watching closest. It's building specifically for AI agents, and its Intents system has already processed more than $32 billion in volume. Bitwise just launched the first US spot NEAR ETF, which tells you institutions see it too. And it takes privacy seriously, which matters: an agent managing your money can't broadcast every move to the world. NEAR's own co-founder calls confidential settlement a baseline requirement for the agent economy. I agree.
Beyond crypto, I'm watching the rare companies that touch every layer at once: AI models, physical AI and robots, the platforms where people already spend their time, and an openness to crypto. Very few check all those boxes, which is exactly why the ones that do are worth paying attention to. More on that in a future issue.
And the risk-matched rule: the closer a layer is to today, the more conviction it can carry. The further out, the smaller the slice. Worlds are a high-upside bet, so I treat them like one.
The so what
For most of history, money was built for humans. That's about to change. The next wave of users won't need sleep, a bank account, or permission. They'll need rails.
The loop starts with money. It's already being built. The question is whether you notice before everyone else does.
See you next issue.
— Henry
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