STREAM 03 INTEL.
Deep market analysis and signal processing data derived from our autonomous research agents.
THE AGENTIC ECONOMY: WORKFORCE AUTOMATION
Analysis of AI agent deployment in Fortune 500 companies. Market reports indicate a shift from SaaS to "Service-as-Software"...
Analysis of AI agent deployment in Fortune 500 companies correlates with a significant increase in operational velocity. The paradigm is shifting from tool-based SaaS (Seat-based) to outcome-based "Service-as-Software" (Work-based). This is not just automation; it is the creation of a synthetic workforce.
Key Market Signals:
- Klarna's AI Pivot: Their AI assistant handled 2.3 million conversations (2/3 of total volume) in one month, doing the work of 700 full-time agents while maintaining customer satisfaction scores.
- Enterprise Adoption: Salesforce Agentforce is deploying autonomous agents that can resolve customer cases without human intervention, rewriting the unit economics of CRM.
- Global Impact: A McKinsey Report estimates that "Agentic AI" could automate up to 50% of today's work activities by 2030, potentially adding trillions in value to the global economy.
We recommend a strategic reallocation of capital towards infrastructure-layer technologies that support agent orchestration and verification. The "Silent Migration" of capital expenditure from human resources to compute resources is underway.
IMPACT VECTOR:
Companies are effectively hiring "digital employees" that require zero onboarding time and scale infinitely. This will compress the "Time-to-Alpha" for organizations that can effectively orchestrate human-agent collaboration.
WALL STREET GOES PUBLIC: THE ON-CHAIN MIGRATION
Major financial institutions are no longer building private walled gardens. They are deploying directly on public mainnets (Ethereum, Stellar, Polygon)...
The era of "Enterprise Blockchain" (private, permissioned ledgers) is ending. The new paradigm is "Institutional DeFi" – major financial players deploying assets directly on public, permissionless blockchains. This shift emphasizes composability and global liquidity over isolation.
Key Deployments Tracking:
-
BlackRock (BUIDL): The world's largest asset manager launched its
tokenized
fund on Ethereum.
> VIEW CONTRACT (Etherscan) -
Franklin Templeton (BENJI): The first US-registered mutual fund to use
a
public blockchain (Stellar & Polygon) to process transactions and record share
ownership.
> VIEW ASSET (Stellar.expert) -
Societe Generale (EURCV): Launched a bank-grade stablecoin fully backed
by
Euros on Ethereum, specifically designed for institutional settlement.
> VIEW TOKEN (Etherscan)
IMPLICATIONS:
This validates the thesis that public chains are the final settlement layer for global finance. We are witnessing the "internet-ification" of capital markets, where assets become programmable objects accessible 24/7/365.
Our "Street Chain" project monitors these flows in real-time. The membrane between TradFi and DeFi is dissolving.
THE SETTLEMENT FLIPPENING: STABLECOINS VS VISA
Adjusted on-chain settlement volume for stablecoins has reached parity with major card networks. The "velocity of money" is accelerating...
2024 Metric Confirmation: Stablecoins have officially become a global settlement rail rivaling traditional payment networks. This represents a fundamental shift in how value moves across the internet, bypassing legacy banking correspondents for peer-to-peer finality.
The Data (2024 Annualized):
- Stablecoin Settlement Volume: ~$27.6 Trillion (Source: CEX.IO Reports). This organic volume confirms migration to permissionless rails.
- Visa Total Volume: ~$16 Trillion (Fiscal 2024). While Visa remains dominant in consumer payments, stablecoins are capturing B2B and interstate settlement.
- Adoption Curve: Creating new utility, the a16z State of Crypto Report highlights that stablecoin activity is decoupling from crypto asset prices, indicating utility-driven rather than speculative-driven usage.
Even when adjusting for inorganic bot activity (wash trading), the organic volume represents a massive migration of value transfer. This isn't speculation; it's settlement infrastructure modernization.
KEY DRIVER:
Cross-border B2B payments and liquidity management are the primary use cases. Why wait T+2 days for SWIFT when you can settle in T+12 seconds on Solana or Arbitrum for a fraction of a cent? The efficiency gains are too large for CFOs to ignore.
TRUTH ENGINES: PREDICTION MARKETS
Polymarket cumulative volume surpassed $9 Billion in 2024. Information markets are becoming the de facto source of truth...
Prediction markets have broken through the "niche" barrier to become critical information infrastructure. Polymarket recorded over $9 Billion in cumulative volume in 2024, driven by high-stakes global events regarding US Elections and Fed Rates. The wisdom of the crowd, backed by capital, is proving superior to expert consensus.
Institutional Validation Phase:
- Capital Injection: ICE (parent of NYSE) invested in Polymarket, valuing the platform at a reported $9B. This signals that traditional exchanges view prediction markets as a valid asset class.
- Data Integration: Bloomberg Terminals now integrate prediction market odds alongside traditional polling data, putting crypto-native signals on every major trading desk.
- Legal Precedent: A landmark Federal Court Victory for Kalshi against the CFTC has legalized election betting for regulated US entities, paving the way for onshore institutional adoption.
These markets act as "Truth Engines," aggregating dispersed information into a single probability signal that is proving consistently more accurate than punditry. We are seeing corporate strategy desks use internal prediction markets to gauge KPI probability.
ALPHA SIGNAL:
The "Epistemic Commons" is being privatized by those who can read the odds. This is the financialization of belief.
SCALING SUPREMACY: LAYER 2 BREAKOUT
Layer 2 networks have successfully scaled Ethereum, flipping Mainnet transaction counts by orders of magnitude. The modular thesis is winning...
The velocity of transaction settlement has migrated permanently to Layer 2 rollup solutions. While the Ethereum Mainnet processes ~1.2M transactions daily, L2 solutions like Base and Arbitrum are handling over 10x that volume. The mainnet is becoming the "Store of Value" layer, while L2s become the "Store of Utility" layer.
Key Growth Vectors:
- Total Value Locked (TVL): The L2Beat Index reports over $50 Billion locked across Layer 2 networks, indicating massive capital trust in rollup security guarantees.
- Coinbase's Base: Reached a record 8.8 Million Daily Transactions, successfully onboarding millions of retail users directly on-chain via a regulated app interface.
- DeFi Dominance: DefiLlama shows Arbitrum alone holding ~$18B+ in TVL, rivaling many Layer 1 competitors combined.
We predict a "L2 Consolidation" phase where liquidity fragments initially but eventually coalesces around 2-3 dominant superchains (Optimism Superchain, Orbit Chains) that share a common sequencing layer.
NETWORK DIVERGENCE: ETHEREUM & SOLANA
2024 active address data confirms a bifurcation in blockchain utility. Solana dominates distinct wallets; Ethereum dominates value...
2024 metrics reveal a distinct optimization separation between the two leading smart contract networks. We are witnessing the emergence of functional specialization rather than a zero-sum game.
Solana (The Consumer Chain):
- Activity: Peaked at ~13.9M Monthly Active Addresses (Jan '24). It dominates high-frequency use cases like Memecoins and DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure).
- Throughput: processing thousands of TPS, making it the only viable chain for mass-consumer apps that assume internet-scale load.
Ethereum + L2s (The Settlement Chain):
- Capital Depth: DefiLlama reports Ethereum Mainnet holds ~$60 Billion+ in TVL, serving as the "Global Bank" for high-value settlement.
- Revenue: Token Terminal data consistently ranks Ethereum as the top protocol by revenue generation, validating the economic sustainability of its blockspace demand.
Conclusion: We view this not as a "winner take all" scenario but a bifurcation of use cases. Portfolios should be allocated to capture both the "Global Computer" (SOL) and the "Global Bank" (ETH) as they service completely different market segments.