For an AI agent to survive, it has to be able to pay for itself. If a human has to step in to settle payments, that’s not autonomy. A Clichmont executive says AI + crypto is a necessity, not just a narrative. Compute and payment rails are an agent’s oxygen—whoever builds them out first will cash in. But as usual, people have been touting this “necessity” for two years, and you can count the projects that have actually delivered on one hand. Narratives can drive hype, but don’t get carried away.