# AI Agents Articles associés

Le Centre d'actualités HTX fournit les derniers articles et analyses approfondies sur "AI Agents", couvrant les tendances du marché, les mises à jour des projets, les développements technologiques et les politiques réglementaires dans l'industrie crypto.

Selling Tokens or Selling Outcomes: Several Paradoxes of the AI Business Model

"The Token vs. Outcome Sale: Key Paradoxes in the AI Business Model By mid-2026, the AI industry shows rapid growth in revenue and token usage, yet the underlying business models differ significantly. This article analyzes four structural paradoxes defining the current landscape, all pointing to the commoditization of intelligence and the concentration of profits in few segments. **The Cost Paradox: Cheaper Tokens, Heavier Bills** Despite a >95% price drop for equivalent AI capability since 2023, total spending has skyrocketed due to the Jevons Paradox: lower prices expand usage into previously uneconomical tasks. Furthermore, the shift to autonomous agents operating 24/7 multiplies consumption. However, efficiency gains often remain unrealized due to unchanged organizational workflows (the Solow Paradox). The focus is shifting from optimizing token price to optimizing the task itself. **The Hierarchy Paradox: The App is King vs. The App is Dead** While conventional wisdom holds that value accrues at the application layer, the AI stack is inverted. Infrastructure (chips) captures ~70% of industry revenue and ~80% of gross profit, while application-layer margins are thin (0-30%). Fast-evolving base models threaten "thin" apps. Sustainable applications are those that embed intelligence into specific contexts, possessing private data, workflows, or delivery capabilities that become more valuable as the base model improves. **The Responsibility Paradox: Profit Follows Accountability** Growth rates alone don't guarantee profit. A key differentiator is a company's willingness and ability to take responsibility for specific outcomes. Selling by the token competes for IT budgets; selling by the outcome (e.g., a resolved support ticket) taps into larger human labor budgets. Low-responsibility, high-volume tasks (e.g., generic客服) face commoditization. High-stakes, regulated domains (e.g., law, healthcare) where vendors assume heavier liability for results command higher margins, as seen with companies like Harvey in legal tech. **The Open-Source Paradox: Open Wins Traffic, Closed Wins Revenue** Open-source models dominate in usage share and developer adoption, often being 5-20x cheaper. However, closed-source models still capture the majority of enterprise spending (~89%). Enterprises pay a premium for closed-source reliability, support, compliance, and accountability. The total cost of ownership (TCO) is converging as closed-source prices fall faster than open-source builds trust, leading to hybrid deployments. Profit is migrating from the model layer itself to upstream (compute) and downstream (orchestration, data, services)."

marsbit07/28 10:41

Selling Tokens or Selling Outcomes: Several Paradoxes of the AI Business Model

marsbit07/28 10:41

The Eternal Fragments of Money: Third-Party Payment Has No First Principle

"The Enduring Fragments of Money: Third-Party Payments Lack a First Principle" Stripe is reportedly attempting to acquire PayPal, marking a significant shift reminiscent of PayPal's merger with the original X.com 30 years ago. The article analyzes Stripe's strategic challenges and the broader payments industry landscape. Despite its initial success with a developer-friendly API model, Stripe missed its optimal IPO window during the pandemic and has since seen its valuation decline. Its attempts to expand through acquisitions and new ventures, particularly in stablecoins (like its OUSD project) and Agent-focused payments (ACP/MPP protocols), have faced headwinds. The author argues that the payment industry remains highly fragmented and is ultimately an adjunct to the traditional banking system. This structure limits the potential for any single player, including Stripe, to achieve complete dominance. While stablecoins and the future rise of autonomous Agent economies present potential growth avenues, they are not yet mainstream and still require integration with the existing financial system. For now, Agent-based transactions are largely used for speculative "volume boosting" rather than substantive business applications. Stripe's current move to acquire PayPal is seen as an attempt to bolster its weak consumer-facing (C-side) business after its stablecoin-focused strategies faltered. Meanwhile, PayPal is described as structurally outdated, unable to revive itself through new products like Venmo or PYUSD. The future of payments may lie not in payments themselves but in value-added services like more efficient settlement networks. The author suggests that companies like Stripe and Circle, which are building their own blockchains (Tempo, Arc) and stablecoins, are positioning themselves to eventually profit from high-efficiency settlement systems. These new networks could potentially bypass some traditional banking layers. In conclusion, the article posits that third-party payment is a perpetually fragmented battlefield where scale alone cannot ensure victory. Players must find new models, focusing on efficiency to compete with the entrenched banking system. Stripe's acquisition of PayPal represents a bet on this uncertain future.

链捕手07/21 15:30

The Eternal Fragments of Money: Third-Party Payment Has No First Principle

链捕手07/21 15:30

Paradigm's New Playbook: Crypto in One Hand, AI and Robotics in the Other

Title: Paradigm's New Strategy: Crypto in One Hand, AI and Robotics in the Other On July 8, 2026, top-tier venture capital firm Paradigm announced the successful $12 billion close of its fourth fund, marking a strategic evolution beyond its pure-play crypto roots. While remaining committed to cryptocurrency, the firm is now formally extending its investment focus to include artificial intelligence, robotics, and other frontier technologies. This shift was foreshadowed by a subtle but significant change to its official social media description earlier in March, from "A research-driven crypto investment firm" to a broader "We build and invest in the companies and ideas shaping the frontier." The move is driven by the firm's recognition of transformative technological waves beyond crypto, particularly in AI and robotics, and a response to the shifting capital allocation landscape. Despite significant AI sector fundraising, Paradigm emphasizes its commitment remains grounded in deep technical rigor. A key intersection for Paradigm lies in AI Agents, where decentralized blockchain networks and stablecoins are seen as a natural financial infrastructure for autonomous digital operations. The firm is active in promoting open-source, decentralized AI (e.g., investing in Nous Research) and building agent-friendly blockchains (e.g., incubating Tempo). It is also developing tools like EVMbench (with OpenAI) and the Centaur AI Agent platform. Within its crypto stronghold, Paradigm will continue focusing on core infrastructure areas. These include derivatives and new liquidity layers (e.g., Hyperliquid), prediction markets (with plans for a proprietary trading terminal), and developer tools (continuing development of Reth and Foundry). In summary, Paradigm's expansion reflects a broader realignment in venture capital, where the intense capital concentration in AI and the search for exponential growth compel even crypto-native funds to broaden their narratives. However, this does not signify an abandonment of crypto; instead, the focus is sharpening on real-world financial applications like stablecoins, RWA, on-chain derivatives, prediction markets, and the convergence of Crypto and AI Agents.

Foresight News07/09 09:06

Paradigm's New Playbook: Crypto in One Hand, AI and Robotics in the Other

Foresight News07/09 09:06

Goldman Sachs Research Report Analysis: Circle and USDC Are Moving Beyond the Crypto World, Cross-Border Payments and AI Agents Become New Battlegrounds

Goldman Sachs published a summary of its meeting with Circle Internet Group (issuer of USDC) on July 5th. The core takeaway is that stablecoins, led by USDC, are evolving from a crypto-native tool into foundational infrastructure for traditional finance and the AI economy. USDC's use cases are rapidly expanding beyond crypto trading into cross-border payments, e-commerce, capital market settlements, and notably, payments for AI agents. Circle's management emphasized that stablecoin growth is now decoupled from crypto market cycles, driven by this diversification. They outlined five key application layers and highlighted USDC's network effects, global liquidity depth, and regulatory compliance as competitive moats. Circle distinguishes USDC from bank-issued tokenized deposits, arguing the former is an open, internet-native system without bank credit risk. Strategically, Circle is building a broader fintech platform with its Arc Layer 1 blockchain, the Circle Payments Network for cross-border transfers, and an "Agentic Stack" to serve AI agent economies, where USDC already dominates. Regarding regulation, Circle views potential U.S. legislation like the CLARITY Act as a catalyst for growth rather than a constraint, expecting it to encourage broader institutional adoption and active usage. Goldman Sachs maintains a Neutral rating on Circle with a $96 price target, noting the company's shift from a pure stablecoin issuer to a financial infrastructure provider. Key risks include competition from USDT and potential earnings pressure from declining interest rates on its reserve assets.

marsbit07/07 03:53

Goldman Sachs Research Report Analysis: Circle and USDC Are Moving Beyond the Crypto World, Cross-Border Payments and AI Agents Become New Battlegrounds

marsbit07/07 03:53

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