AI 에이전트란 무엇인가요?

Unlike passive AI models of the past, AI agents are active actors capable of autonomous decision-making, trade execution, and cross-platform interaction.
Through protocols like Google's Agent Payment Protocol (AP2) or Anthropic's Model Context Protocol (MCP), agents can securely connect to data and execute payments using verifiable credentials.
AI agents are becoming primary users of DePIN, autonomously purchasing the compute power and storage space required for operations.
Stablecoins are evolving into the dollar of the internet, serving as the primary settlement method for Agent-to-Agent (A2A) transactions.

Introduction

The convergence of artificial intelligence and blockchain technology has moved beyond the stage of theoretical experimentation. As of 2026, we have entered the era of the Agent Economy. While early AI tools were adept at text generation, they were largely passive. Today's AI agents act as active economic agents, negotiating, trading, and managing digital assets without continuous human intervention.

This shift is made possible by new interoperability standards and payment rails that allow software to effectively employ other software, forming a decentralized economy that operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

What is an AI Agent?

An AI agent is an autonomous software program designed to perceive its environment, reason about how to achieve a specific goal, and execute actions to fulfill that goal.

If a Large Language Model (LLM) simply writes an email for you, an AI agent can be designed to write the email, find the recipient's address, send it, and even schedule a follow-up meeting based on the reply. In a crypto context, this means agents can autonomously manage wallets, execute complex DeFi strategies, and interact with smart contracts.

The Shift to Agentic Workflows

The industry has moved from simple automation to agent commerce. This involves agents transacting on behalf of users using standardized protocols. For this to work, agents rely on three key elements.

Identity: Cryptographic proofs (verifiable credentials) that prove the agent is authorized to act.
Context: The ability to connect to external tools and data (e.g., Anthropic's Model Context Protocol).
Payment rails: Methods to settle value instantly (stablecoins and Google's AP2).

How Do AI Agents Work?

Modern AI agents rely on a sophisticated protocol stack to ensure accurate and safe operation.

1. Context and Connectivity (MCP)

Many AI agents use Anthropic's Model Context Protocol (MCP) to standardize how they connect to data sources and tools. This prevents agents from being siloed and allows them to securely access necessary context, such as user portfolio history or real-time market data.

2. Authorization and Intent (Delegation)

To solve the trust problem, the AI industry has adopted Verifiable Digital Credentials (VDC). When a user requests a task from an agent, the system generates an Intent Mandate. This is a cryptographically signed digital contract proving that the user has authorized the agent to spend funds within specific limits.

3. Agent-to-Agent (A2A) Communication

Agents often need to collaborate. Using Agent-to-Agent (A2A) protocols, a shopping agent can communicate directly with a merchant agent to negotiate prices or check stock with minimal or no human intervention.

AI Agents and Crypto

The synergy between AI and blockchain has evolved beyond generative art into critical infrastructure and financial products.

1. Agent Commerce and Payments

One of the most significant breakthroughs of 2026 is the standardization of agent payments. For example, Google's Agent Payment Protocol (AP2) has built a universal framework for agents to execute transactions.

Stablecoins as the Standard: Stablecoins have become the dollar of the internet for these interactions because they enable programmable, 24/7 payments that most traditional banking systems cannot support.
Complex Transactions: Agents can now handle multi-step flows, such as booking flights and hotels simultaneously while adhering to a user's budget via signed mandates.

2. DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks)

AI agents crave compute power. Instead of relying solely on centralized clouds, these agents are injecting new life into DePIN. Agents can autonomously identify and negotiate to purchase decentralized GPU compute or storage on decentralized networks. This shifts the market from miners chasing token incentives to earning revenue by processing AI workloads.

3. Autonomous DeFi Management

In DeFi, agents have evolved from simple trading bots into complex portfolio managers.

Smart Treasuries: Agents can monitor yields across multiple chains and automatically rebalance assets to optimize returns.
Risk Mitigation: Advanced agents use keepers to monitor liquidation risks or smart contract vulnerabilities, proactively withdrawing funds if a threat is detected.

4. Trust and Verification

As AI content proliferates, agents are also being deployed to verify authenticity. Through blockchain provenance protocols, agents can trace the origin of digital content, helping to identify deepfakes and enforce ownership in an age of infinite AI generation.

The Know Your Agent (KYA) Problem

While the technology has matured, integrating AI into finance presents new hurdles.

Just as financial institutions require Know Your Customer (KYC) systems, the AI industry is moving toward Know Your Agent (KYA). Agents need cryptographically signed credentials that link the agent to its human principal and legal liability for transactions.
High-frequency agent trading requires massive throughput. While Layer 2 solutions have improved, ensuring blockchains can handle the scale of machine-to-machine (M2M) commerce remains a challenge.
Centralized AI models still pose a single point of failure risk. The shift to Secrets-as-a-Service aims to let agents manage sensitive data (e.g., private keys) using decentralized key management rather than trusting a single server.

Conclusion

We have moved past the hype phase of AI within crypto. AI agents are no longer just content generation tools; they are part of the infrastructure layer of the digital economy. With the adoption of standards like AP2 and the integration of stablecoins as a primary payment layer, agents are transforming how we transact, work, and interact with the physical world. The future depends not simply on humans using blockchain, but on AI agents using blockchain to build a more efficient and automated economy.