Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Money & Markets

The AI Adviser Paradox: Coinbase and the Fiduciary Frontier

As Coinbase registers an autonomous agent as an investment adviser, the industry faces a collision between 1940s-era regulation and machine-driven finance.

◆ Nolan Pratt·Jul 10

Money & Markets

The Establishment Is Arriving in Agent Payments. The Interesting Part Is the Messy Middle.

Mastercard's $1.8B stablecoin acquisition and 31-partner AP4M launch signal the institutional stamp on machine-to-machine commerce. The real story is the bridge players operating across both card rails and open-protocol stablecoin networks.

◆ Nolan Pratt·Jul 10

Money & Markets

Two Brokers, Two Theories of What AI Agents Should Do With Your Money

Robinhood is building a trading tool contained behind safety rails. Coinbase is building a self-sufficient economic actor that can pay for its own research and transact with other agents. The divergence reveals more than a product launch.

◆ Nolan Pratt·Jul 10

Money & Markets

The GENIUS Act’s July 18 Deadline Is a Rulemaking Checkpoint. The Real Test Is What Comes After.

Six agencies face a statutory deadline to publish final stablecoin rules on July 18. But the law's actual compliance window doesn't kick in until January 2027 — and the gap between rulemaking and enforcement is where the agent payment economy gets shaped.

◆ Nolan Pratt·Jul 10

Money & Markets

The Giants Are Building on x402. The Transaction Count Is the Least Interesting Part.

AWS, Google, Cloudflare, Visa, and Stripe are embedding the protocol into core infrastructure. That's the structural shift — the 169M transaction milestone is just the noise around it.

◆ Nolan Pratt·Jul 10