[Market Pulse] AI Agentic Commerce and Digital Currency

Youngsun Park, former Minister of SMEs and Startups

원본보기 아이콘

"Book my flight and hotel for a trip to Tokyo this weekend." You say this to your smartphone. Instantly, an artificial intelligence (AI) agent simultaneously compares dozens of airline and accommodation platforms, selects the optimal combination, and completes the payment. There is no room for human intervention. This is the world of 'Agentic Commerce' we are entering. This new commercial paradigm is not simply an evolution of convenience. It represents a fundamental shift in the locus of purchasing-from humans to machines. And at the center of this shift lies a core question: If AI agents are to autonomously spend money, what form must that money take?

The answer is clear. The existing fiat currency system, that is, bank accounts and credit card networks, cannot keep up with the speed and scale of AI. AI must process thousands of micropayments per second, operate across borders 24/7, and execute transactions in a trustworthy manner without human approval. The only thing that meets all these requirements is digital currency.

Agentic commerce refers to a series of commercial activities-searching, comparing, purchasing, and payment-that AI agents autonomously perform on behalf of users. This is not simply a continuation of shopping recommendation algorithms or chatbot consultations. The qualitative difference lies in the fact that AI now functions as the decision-maker. In September 2025, Google announced an open protocol, 'AP2,' allowing AI agents to make payments on its platform. Over 60 companies-including Mastercard, PayPal, American Express, and Coinbase-collaborated on this standard, which seals users' purchase intentions and cart details with cryptographic signatures to prevent tampering.

At the same time, OpenAI and Stripe jointly developed a similar payment protocol, 'ACP,' with Shopify and Etsy as the first merchants to participate. The Ethereum Foundation also set a goal in its 2026 roadmap to build Ethereum as a decentralized global payment and collaboration layer for AI. The standard war is already divided into two camps.

Salesforce, analyzing the results of the 2025 year-end shopping season, announced that AI agents directly impacted a meaningful share of retail transactions. McKinsey is already operating 25,000 AI agents as if they were employees, and JPMorgan has distributed its proprietary large language model (LLM)-based tools to 250,000 employees. In the corporate field, agents are already a reality.

For AI agents to carry out commerce, they need a means of payment. However, traditional financial systems structurally conflict with the way AI agents operate. Existing banking systems are designed for human authorization. To issue a credit card, personal authentication is required, and suspicious transactions must be approved by a person. In an environment where AI executes thousands of microtransactions per second, this structure is fundamentally inefficient.

On the other hand, digital currencies-especially blockchain-based stablecoins-have characteristics that can solve this problem. First, they are 'programmable.' Smart contracts enable conditional automated payments, allowing AI agents to autonomously complete transactions based on preset rules. Second, they are borderless; there are no exchange fees or processing delays in cross-border payments, making them suitable for globally operating AI agents. Third, they operate 24/7/365, unconstrained by banking hours or national holidays. Fourth, they are optimized for micropayments. Traditional card networks impose unreasonably high fees for small transactions, but blockchain-based payments can efficiently process even transactions worth just a few cents.

The explosive growth of stablecoins is a clear demonstration of this. In 2025, the annual stablecoin transaction volume reached 33 trillion dollars, surpassing the combined transaction volumes of Visa and Mastercard. Still, a direct one-to-one comparison with card networks is not entirely accurate. The true place of stablecoins lies not in card networks, but one layer beneath-namely, the global settlement network long dominated by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) and Automated Clearing House (ACH) systems. Even when Visa routes payments, the actual movement of funds still takes place on SWIFT and ACH. Now, that layer is rapidly shifting to stablecoins. The implication is profound: it is not just a layer above the card network, but the deepest infrastructure of global finance itself that is being replaced wholesale.

The form of money is changing its medium for the first time since the invention of the printing press. Transitioning from paper to bits was not a true medium change; traditional digital payments were more akin to scanning paper money. Stablecoins are different because, for the first time, money becomes an environment for code execution. Money is evolving from data to a program. AI agents call this program.

The United States is rapidly establishing the institutional foundation for the era of agentic commerce. The 'GENIUS Act', which took effect in July 2025, is the first federal-level regulatory legislation for stablecoins in U.S. history. It passed with overwhelming bipartisan support-68 to 30 in the Senate and 308 to 122 in the House.

The core of the GENIUS Act is that it recognizes payment stablecoins not as private currencies but as part of public financial infrastructure. Through one-to-one reserve requirements, issuer licensing, and a dual supervisory framework by federal and state authorities, stablecoins have been incorporated as official components of the dollar-based payment system, rather than as speculative byproducts of the cryptocurrency market. This provided the legal foundation for major U.S. financial institutions like JPMorgan and Bank of America to begin issuing their own stablecoins in earnest.

Interestingly, the United States is also pursuing the 'Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act', led primarily by the Republican Party. Out of concerns that a central bank digital currency (CBDC) could serve as a tool for government surveillance of personal financial information, the U.S. has opted for privately-led stablecoins. This represents a uniquely American strategic direction, distinct from China's digital yuan or Europe's digital euro.

원본보기 아이콘

China began developing the digital yuan (e-CNY) in 2014 and now possesses the most advanced CBDC infrastructure in the world. However, the structural feature that allows the central bank to monitor all transactions could become a shackle in the age of AI agents.

The European Union is fully implementing the 'Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA)' regulation, establishing a comprehensive regulatory framework for the digital asset market, and is preparing to introduce a digital euro. Singapore is set to launch its stablecoin regulatory framework in mid-2026, further strengthening its status as Asia's digital financial hub. Since August 2025, Hong Kong has transitioned stablecoin issuance linked to legal tender to a licensing system.

Japan, in particular, is noteworthy. While the U.S. and Singapore are often associated with fintech (finance + technology) innovation, Japan is leading in the field of consortium stablecoins among banks. The consortium of Japan's three megabanks-Mitsubishi UFJ, Sumitomo Mitsui, and Mizuho-initiated a joint pilot using the 'Progmat' platform in November 2025 and, by March 2026, entered the full-scale rollout phase. This was possible because the Financial Services Agency (FSA) of Japan proactively provided a clear legal framework by amending the Payment Services Act (PSA). Japan proves the paradox that regulatory clarity accelerates innovation. Korea may appear more liberal, but in reality, everyone is stalled due to regulatory ambiguity. Meanwhile, Japan, which appears more conservative, is running ahead within a clearly defined framework.

Despite Korea's world-class IT infrastructure and vibrant digital payment ecosystem, the reality is far from favorable. In March 2026, the Bank of Korea began the second phase of 'Project Han River,' a project utilizing CBDC and deposit tokens. In the first phase, over 81,000 participants completed 114,880 real transactions. The second phase has expanded to include nine commercial banks. Notably, the Bank of Korea is also conducting experiments with AI agent commerce based on deposit tokens. It is also examining the process by which won-denominated stablecoins issued on different blockchains, such as Ethereum and Avalanche, are used for merchant payments and then redeemed as deposits.

However, the biggest issue is the regulatory vacuum and inter-agency conflict. The debate over won-denominated stablecoins is not about technology, but about a jurisdictional dispute between the Bank of Korea and the Financial Services Commission. As seen in the debate over whether to require stablecoin issuers to hold more than 51% of bank shares, stakeholders are focusing more on defending their turf than on cooperating. The second challenge is participation in global standards. International payment standards for agentic commerce-such as Google's AP2, OpenAI's ACP, the Ethereum Foundation's ERC-8004, and Coinbase's x402-are emerging one after another. Korea currently remains a recipient in this process of standard formation.

The third issue is speed. Once a payment standard is established, it lasts for a generation. Visa started as 'BankAmericard' in 1958 and still sits atop the payment network. The ISO standard container was created in 1956, and its specifications remain the backbone of global trade. The payment standard for agentic commerce will follow a similar fate. If the standard is set now, transactions will still take place on it in 2050. While Korea spends time on internal discussions and inter-agency agreements, competitor countries are already building infrastructure and attracting businesses. Missing this round is not just missing a quarter, but missing a generation. Korea needs a practical approach, making active use of sandbox systems and conditionally permitting won-denominated stablecoin issuance in advance.

Korea must first quickly establish a clear legal framework for issuing won-denominated stablecoins. The jurisdictional dispute between the Bank of Korea and the Financial Services Commission must be resolved, and a single law, like the U.S. GENIUS Act, must be enacted, clearly stipulating reserve requirements, issuers, and supervisory systems. Regulatory clarity is a prerequisite for innovation. Additionally, the formation of a won-based agent payment consortium, jointly participated in by domestic AI companies, fintech companies, and financial institutions, should be considered.

Korea must also strengthen its participation in international standardization. Global agentic commerce standards are still in the early stages of formation. If Korean companies and institutions actively participate at this stage, they can influence the formation of these standards. The government should expand its participation in international digital finance consultative bodies and support corporate activities in standardization organizations. Finally, a governance framework for AI agents should be proactively designed. A comprehensive AI agent financial governance framework is needed, including agent identity authentication, the establishment of payment authorization scopes by agent, and abnormal transaction detection systems.

The convergence of AI agent commerce and digital currency is not a matter of choice. Dominating the payment infrastructure in the age of agentic commerce means seizing the initiative in commercial transactions. The question of what currency AI agents use, and who issues and manages that currency, is not merely a financial issue but a matter of digital economic sovereignty. Countries falling behind in this competition will see their domestic AI companies forced to rely on USDC or other overseas stablecoins based on the dollar. The wave of AI agent commerce has already begun. To ride this wave, we must hoist the sail of digital currency now.

Youngsun Park, former Minister of SMEs and Startups

© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.