A seismic shift is underway in the world of commerce, driven by the convergence of artificial intelligence and blockchain payments. AI agents, capable of autonomous decision-making and action, are beginning to engage in transactions, from settling invoices to interacting with infrastructure in ways that traditional payment systems were not designed to handle.
The question on everyone's mind is: what kind of financial infrastructure will these agents operate on, and who will be the architects of this new framework? With the potential for billions of AI agents to emerge, the need for a tailored infrastructure becomes increasingly pressing. Consensus 2026 is poised to address this very issue, bringing together over 15,000 influential figures from the crypto, AI, and finance sectors to shape the future of agentic commerce.
According to Christian Catalini, MIT professor and founder of the Cryptoeconomics Lab, true agentic payments can only occur when AI is the counterparty, enabling capabilities such as atomic settlement and per-second payment streaming. This is not a distant scenario but a near-term engineering challenge that will be tackled at Consensus 2026.
The event will feature key players such as Google Cloud, which is actively investing in blockchain payment rails, and protocols like x402 and MPP, which are vying to become the standard for agentic commerce. CoinDesk University will also offer a comprehensive curriculum on building and deploying agentic payments, providing attendees with a hands-on understanding of the underlying mechanics. The window for shaping the future of agentic commerce is open, but it won't remain so forever. Join the 15,000+ builders, investors, and industry leaders at Consensus 2026, May 5-7, in Miami Beach, to be part of this pivotal moment in the evolution of commerce.