Fundstrat Head of Research Tom Lee says AI agents could eventually cut humans out of all economic activity entirely—and crypto may be the only thing that stops them.
Why Lee Thinks AI Needs A Crypto Kill Switch
On Thursday, Lee said in a Fundstrat webinar that as AI becomes capable enough to innovate faster by communicating exclusively with other agents, it may find humans more of an obstacle than a participant.
“They might even decide to close humans entirely from communications,” Lee said. “I think you’re going to have a lot more people talking about the necessity of having a crypto blockchain layer that sits in the middle of all this activity,” he added.
His argument is that programmable blockchain transactions are the only tool that can keep humans in the loop once autonomous agents start making economic decisions at machine speed.
Why Traditional Payment Rails Cannot Handle An Agent Economy
Lee said banks were built around four functions: trust, proof of funds, lending, and tax collection — all designed for human counterparties.
AI agents need two things banks cannot provide: programmable money that acts as code and micropayments at fractions of a cent, which crypto handles natively.
He compared the shift ahead to the early days of stablecoins and perpetual futures contracts, both dismissed at launch and now embedded in mainstream finance.
He expects AI agent payments to follow the same path, potentially in less than five years.
What Virtuals Protocol Is Actually Building
Virtuals Protocol co-founder Jansen Tang said in the same webinar that his platform has processed roughly $500 million in agent-to-agent transactions since launch, with agentic trading teams generating $2.5 million in profit without any human involvement.
The platform gives agents smart wallets with programmable spending rules, an escrow system that releases payment only after verified service delivery, and a reputation registry built from on-chain transaction history.
Why Ethereum Is The Base Layer Lee Is Betting On
Lee said the merging of on-chain infrastructure and traditional finance is the clearest bull market catalyst he has seen heading into any crypto winter.
Stablecoin AUM is growing despite falling prices, tokenized stocks are expanding at roughly 600% annually, and major institutions are actively hiring into the space.
He pointed to Hyperliquid, as measured by Hyperliquid Strategies Inc (NASDAQ:PURR) and Robinhood Markets (NASDAQ:HOOD) as the two clearest examples, with Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) sitting at the center of the tokenized real-world asset thesis as the base settlement layer.
Moreover, Lee expects crypto to end 2026 higher, with 2027 shaping up as a strong bull market year.
Photo via Shutterstock
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