On the same day, Sam Altman's World and Coinbase integrated identity verification and stablecoin payments into the AI Agent pipeline, while NVIDIA released the full implementation of the Agent e-commerce protocol on the second day of GTC. The Agent economy moved from concept to infrastructure in just one week.
1|AI Agent Got Its ID and Wallet on the Same Day
World released AgentKit, enabling AI Agents to carry cryptographic credentials proving "a real person is behind it" through zero-knowledge proofs, with 17.9 million users globally already verified. On the same day, AgentKit integrated with the x402 protocol jointly developed by Coinbase and Cloudflare, allowing Agents to perform micro-payments using stablecoins without human intervention. Erik Reppel, Engineering Lead of Coinbase's Developer Platform, stated: "Payment is the how of Agent commerce, identity is the who."
NVIDIA added the third pillar on the second day of GTC: the Retail Agentic Commerce Blueprint, a full implementation of OpenAI's Agentic Commerce Protocol, also compatible with Google's Universal Commerce Protocol. Consumers using ChatGPT or Gemini can theoretically complete the entire process from search to payment through an Agent. World cited predictions that Agent commerce could reach $3 to $5 trillion by 2030. The identity layer, payment layer, and commerce protocol layer all landed in the same week, and the infrastructure for the Agent economy is taking shape faster than anyone expected.
(Source: CoinDesk / TechCrunch / NVIDIA Blog)
2|The Entire AI Industry Stands Behind Anthropic
Four major tech industry associations (CCIA, ITI, SIIA, TechNet) submitted amicus briefs to the court, requesting a halt to the Pentagon's designation of Anthropic as a "supply chain risk." These four associations represent Google, OpenAI, Meta, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Adobe, Cloudflare, Accenture, and Deloitte. Hearing scheduled for March 24.
The issue arose when Anthropic requested that the U.S. military commit not to use its models for fully autonomous weapons and large-scale domestic surveillance. The Pentagon's move was to label it as a supply chain risk, a designation historically reserved for foreign adversaries. Anthropic expects revenue losses to reach billions of dollars by 2026.
On the surface, it's a contract dispute between a company and the military, but at its core is a question that has never been formally answered: Do AI companies have the right to set limits on how government clients use their technology? The entire industry gave its answer with a court filing.
(Source: Axios / CNBC / NPR)
3|Powell's Second-to-Last Appearance, Iran War Weighs on Inflation Expectations
The FOMC March meeting concludes today, with the interest rate decision and dot plot to be announced at 2:00 AM Beijing time tomorrow. The market expects rates to remain unchanged at 3.5%-3.75%, with the CME FedWatch tool showing a probability of over 92% for no change. The suspense lies not in the rate itself, but in the dot plot: the median expectation in January was for only one cut this year, and rising energy prices due to the Iran war could further reduce that number.
Powell's term ends on May 15. This is his second-to-last press conference as Fed Chair. The Strait of Hormuz blockade, soaring oil prices, and resurgent inflation expectations all weigh on his final two press conferences. Every word he says about inflation today will be parsed meticulously.
(Source: CNBC / Kiplinger / J.P. Morgan)
4|NVIDIA Aims to Rewrite Telecom Networks into Inference Grids
On the second day of GTC, NVIDIA released the AI Grid architecture, transforming operators' base stations, central offices, and edge nodes into a distributed inference grid. Comcast benchmark tests: distributed deployment reduced inference costs by 76% compared to centralized deployment, with P99 burst traffic latency below 500 milliseconds and peak throughput of 42,000 tokens per second. Nokia and T-Mobile are already cooperating on AI-RAN implementation. A unified control plane automatically routes workloads based on latency, data sovereignty, and cost.
The story Jensen Huang told on Monday was about selling GPUs to data centers; the story on Tuesday was that the entire telecom infrastructure is an inference engine. From chips to operating systems to grids, this front is growing longer every day.
(Source: NVIDIA Technical Blog / blockchain.news)
5|Day 18 of the Iran War, the Pentagon's Budget Gap is Widening
According to CSIS estimates, the first 100 hours of Operation Epic Fury cost $3.7 billion, with a daily cost approaching $900 million. Budget experts'预估 (estimate) for the total direct military expenditure of the entire war ranges from $40 billion to $95 billion, most of which is not covered by the existing defense budget. The Pentagon will soon need to request additional funding from Congress. The Strait of Hormuz has been closed for three weeks, and the UN World Food Programme warns the war is driving up global food and fertilizer prices.
Iran has chosen to attack neutral and friendly countries (Oman, Qatar, Turkey), and the UK's Cyprus air base was hit by a drone. The conflict has spread to at least 12 countries. RAND's assessment is: Iran is more likely to choose to continue fighting rather than concede, and the trajectory of the war may be longer than Washington expects. The cost curve and timeline of this war are both spiraling out of control.
(Source: CSIS / Fortune / RAND / Al Jazeera)
Also Worth Knowing ↓
DLSS 5 is NVIDIA's biggest graphics leap since ray tracing in 2018. 3D neural rendering plus generative AI, real-time 4K output, launching Fall 2026. NVIDIA is advancing both inference infrastructure and consumer graphics lines at GTC. (Source: Tom's Hardware)
Germany plans to double AI data center capacity by 2030. This is not about catching up in the computing power competition; it's about buying an insurance policy for digital sovereignty. European governments are investing in AI infrastructure as a national strategic asset. (Source: Tech Startups)
German fintech Upvest raised $125 million at a valuation of €640 million. Sapphire Ventures, Tencent, Bessemer, BlackRock participated. The company provides brokerage technology middleware for neobanks like Revolut. As the IPO window warms up, financing in the financial infrastructure layer is accelerating. (Source: Bloomberg)
CLARITY Act stalled in the Senate. Trump's March 8 post called for the SAVE America Act to be prioritized, disagreements over stablecoin yield provisions unresolved. This comprehensive U.S. crypto regulation bill is waiting in line; lobbying at the DC Blockchain Summit these days may or may not accelerate progress. (Source: CoinDesk)
38% of altcoins are trading near cycle lows, liquidity continues to concentrate in Bitcoin. Bitcoin's market cap is approximately $1.33 trillion, Ethereum struggles below $2000. The Bitcoin network mined its 20 millionth coin on March 10th, leaving only 1 million coins until the 21 million cap. (Source: Fortune / MEXC)
