Agentic commerce
Cathie Wood told Robinhood's Houston summit on Wednesday that investors should 'follow the agents,' and Coinbase already ships x402, a protocol that lets machines pay for data and API access. Airbnb's CEO told Nikkei it is unlikely to let third-party agents like Muse book on its behalf — the first hard test of whether incumbents gatekeep agentic commerce or cede the funnel. Stripe, Visa, Google and OpenAI all have agent-payment tools in flight, but nobody on the record has a revenue number. That makes this a positioning story, not an earnings one.
Buy Coinbase — Coinbase's x402 protocol and Armstrong's 'Grok is the leading client for agentic traders on Coinbase' line make it the purest listed agent-payments bet — but at 65x forward earnings and 55% below its 52-week high, the narrative is priced well in advance of any revenue.
Hold Visa — CoinDesk names Visa alongside Stripe, Google and OpenAI as building agent-payment tools — the incumbent hedge if commerce stays on traditional rails, 7% off its 52-week high at 24x forward.
Watch Airbnb — Airbnb's CEO says agents like Muse are unlikely to get booking access, protecting the direct funnel and take rate; at 16% below its 52-week high with YTD +22.1%, the market already assumes the gate holds.