Bank of AI and PKUBlockchain have unveiled their groundbreaking research report on the emergence of Web4.0’s “agent economy.” The report introduces x402, ERC‑8004, and MCP as key protocols, with Tron and $USDT as the default settlement rail for AI agents.
The report, titled “Web4.0: When AI Agents Become Economic Entities — Infrastructure, Market Landscape, and Investment Outlook,” is a joint effort by Bank of AI and Peking University’s PKUBlockchain association. It explores the transition of AI systems from tools to autonomous entities capable of holding assets, generating income, and conducting transactions, necessitating a reevaluation of crypto infrastructure to accommodate them.
Web4.0 report highlights on-chain AI agents
The report envisions AI agents as on‑chain economic entities that require the ability to send and receive payments, verify identity, utilize off‑chain tools, and establish track records akin to human-operated wallets or businesses. To bridge this gap, the authors identify three missing or underdeveloped infrastructural layers: the x402 payment protocol for stablecoin transfers, ERC‑8004 as an on‑chain “ID card” for agents, and an MCP standard for tool invocation.
Bank of AI showcases its stack as a reference implementation, integrating “five core components into a unified Agent financial operating system” that connects these protocols from concept to real-world application. Concurrently, external research on agentic markets, such as FinChain’s “Agentic RWA Stack,” forecasts AI agents managing trillions of dollars in assets and commercial flows by 2030, underscoring the current focus on payment and identity infrastructure.
The report emphasizes Tron as the primary settlement platform for Web4.0’s agent-driven economy, citing its daily processing of over $22 billion in stablecoin volume and hosting approximately $86 billion in $USDT. This scale and efficiency make Tron ideal for facilitating high-frequency micro-settlements by AI agents.
Third-party analytics corroborate these findings, showing TRON handling $21 billion in daily stablecoin transfers, with over $80 billion in $USDT supply and 2-2.2 million stablecoin transactions daily. Tron’s rise as a stablecoin hub is evident in its surpassing Ethereum in $USDT supply, becoming Tether’s primary settlement layer for dollar transfers.
Regulatory recognition of $USDT on Tron as a fiat-referenced token in Abu Dhabi’s ADGM regime further solidifies Tron’s role in the global financial landscape. Meanwhile, Tron’s stablecoin infrastructure aligns with the broader push towards an “agentic economy,” exemplified by TRON DAO’s $1 billion AI fund supporting projects that merge AI agents with on-chain payments, a concept central to Bank of AI’s report.