In late February 2026, in the East 8 Time Zone, a series of actions surrounding AI agents, e-commerce payments, and compliance games are quietly rewriting the main narrative of the crypto industry: from BitTap opening new trading pairs, to Arbitrum betting on the developer ecosystem, to Tether adjusting its product line, and Binance responding to compliance disputes. Traditional institutions like Bitwise, Stripe, Circle, and NVIDIA, as well as crypto entities, are also accelerating on their respective tracks. On the technical level, the expectation of high-frequency trading driven by intelligent agents brings unprecedented on-chain throughput and settlement pressure; on the institutional level, insider trading investigations, cross-border fund flows, and regulatory high pressure continue to erode users' trust in infrastructure. Whether technological dividends can offset the structural constraints posed by compliance uncertainty and the dominance of dollar-denominated assets has become the core issue of this round of industry competition.
AI Agents Taking the Stage: E-commerce Payments Accelerating On-chain
● Transaction Logic Leap: Hunter Horsley, CEO of Bitwise, publicly stated that, “Intelligent agents will soon be responsible for most internet transactions, requiring blockchain support for over a million or even billions of transactions per second.” The co-founder of Stripe anticipates that a large number of e-commerce activities driven by AI agents will emerge. This means that future mainstream transactions will evolve from "manual clicks" to "continuous automatic settlement between machines," with both transaction volume and automation levels raised by several orders of magnitude.
● Scenarios and Infrastructure: In the e-commerce scenario, AI agents can automatically compare prices, select suppliers, place orders, complete payments, and handle refunds based on user preferences and budgets, linking in real-time with inventory, logistics, and marketing systems. This kind of machine-to-machine (M2M) high-frequency, small-amount, multi-batch settlement imposes extreme requirements on on-chain payment infrastructure in terms of high throughput, low cost, and finality confirmation speed, forcing public chains, layer two networks, and payment gateways to restructure their technology stacks and fee models.
● Narrative Switch and Threshold: As expectations for AI agent transactions rise, the narrative of crypto assets is accelerating its shift from "speculative targets" to "payment and settlement infrastructure." Whether a balance can be found among performance, transaction fees, developer friendliness, and compliance interfaces becomes a common threshold for public chains, layer twos, and payment companies: they must serve future transaction demands from billions of intelligent agents while also taking on roles that are auditable and accountable within current regulatory frameworks.
From BitTap to Arbitrum: Heating Up Liquidity and Developers for a High-Frequency Future
● Exchange Liquidity Preparation: According to a single source, BitTap plans to open SUN/USDT and BTT/USDT spot trading pairs on February 28, 2026, at 14:00 (GMT+8). Although no trading volume data has been disclosed, this action itself signals that the platform is preparing liquidity for more diverse assets and applications. By expanding trading pairs linked to mainstream priced assets, exchanges reserve entry and exit channels for potential new use cases and narratives, paving the way for future AI agents to possibly connect on-chain payments directly through exchanges.
● Layer Two Competing for Developers: On the infrastructure side, the Arbitrum Mentorship Program announced it will select 15 early teams for a guidance program, aiming to lock in key developers tightly within its ecosystem with resources and branding. Although specific support terms have not been disclosed, the quota control indicates an emphasis on “selected projects,” with AI, payment, and application developers clearly being the focus of this competition, as they are most likely to incubate high-frequency scenarios such as AI-driven e-commerce in the coming years.
● Capital and Computing Power Rhythm: At the same time, the earnings report publication dates from Circle and NVIDIA are seen by the market as another dimensional background coordinate: the former holds the issuance and compliance discourse of mainstream dollar-denominated assets, while the latter is the core provider of AI computing power infrastructure. Even though the details of the earnings report have not yet been disclosed, these two time nodes themselves have placed the “fund settlement layer,” “AI computing power layer,” and “on-chain execution layer” on the same timeline, reinforcing the market's integrated imagination of “AI × payments × chains.”
● High-Frequency Future Arrangements: Overall, exchanges lay out liquidity in advance by launching new trading pairs, layer two networks secure developers through mentorship programs, and tech giants adjust expectations in the capital market and computing power provision. The synchronized rhythm among the three revolves around an increasingly clear goal: high-frequency, small amount, multi-entity future trading scenarios. Whoever can firmly establish a position in infrastructure and entry points before this future truly arrives will have the opportunity to gain discourse power in the age of AI agents.
Trust Game Under the Shadow of Insider Trading
● On-chain Oversight Magnifying Glass: The insider trading investigation led by independent investigator ZachXBT continues to ferment within the community, highlighting how on-chain tracking and public disclosure can push project parties, market makers, and even trading platforms onto the “transparency judgment stage.” In the face of traceable on-chain data, any abnormal fund flows, pre-positioning, or interactions among related wallets will be amplified and interpreted by the community, significantly shrinking the traditional “black box” operation space.
● Erosion of Trust and Information Constraints: The harm to ordinary users from insider trading and opaque fund flows lies not only in potential price manipulation but also in a fundamental suspicion of whether “the rules of the game are fair.” It is important to emphasize that the briefing does not disclose specific case details, involved projects, or amounts related to the ZachXBT investigation; we can only confirm “the existence of an investigation” and “trust is undermined,” but cannot make any extrapolations or embellishments about individual cases, lest we become part of the information noise.
● Compliance Controversy Tug-of-War: Alongside community oversight is the struggle between regulators and platforms. In response to allegations that it dismissed its investigative team due to fund flows related to Iran, Binance publicly denied the claims, which are currently categorized as “to be verified” information. Regardless of the final truth, such controversies reveal a reality: platforms must prove their efforts in anti-money laundering and sanction compliance to regulators while maintaining market confidence; any slight disturbance can quickly evolve into a public relations and trust crisis.
● Chain Risks in the AI Era: In a future where AI agents largely replace human decision-making, if the underlying infrastructure loses credibility, the chain reaction can be amplified by automation and leverage effects. Intelligent agents may collectively downgrade a certain chain or platform based on risk control parameters, leading to instantaneous liquidity migration; erroneous compliance labels or false reports could wrongly affect large-scale normal transactions, resulting in a “flash crash” on both technical and institutional levels. Trust will no longer be merely an emotional issue for users, but will be encoded into machine decision-making logic.
Tether Shortens Its Line: The Exit of CNHT and the Stubbornness of Settlement Habits
● Surface of Product Line Reduction: According to a single source, Tether plans to cease support for CNHT, with official reasons revolving around “insufficient demand” and product line optimization, which remains “to be verified information” as relevant timelines and technical arrangements have not yet been disclosed. From the result, this action signifies that the issuer is actively narrowing its edge products and concentrating resources on assets with stronger market demand and regulatory and commercial value.
● Reality of Demand Structure: In stark contrast to the marginalization of CNHT is the high demand position of mainstream dollar-denominated assets in global settlements and transactions. Whether on centralized platforms or on-chain protocols, the dollar remains the default pricing unit for the vast majority of transactions and settlements. In contrast, other priced assets represented by offshore yuan find it difficult to establish sufficient liquidity and user cognition in the absence of policy endorsement and widespread usage scenarios.
● Trade Constraints in Business Scenarios: From the actual operation of e-commerce and cross-border settlements, most B2B and B2C transactions are still bound to settlement practices in dollars or local fiat currencies. Supply chain finance, tax compliance, foreign exchange control, and internal accounting systems all create path dependency on the pricing currency, which leads to a lack of rigid demand support for multi-priced assets, even if technically viable, in real commercial environments, making it difficult to form economies of scale.
● Tension Between Global Orders and Local Settlement: AI agents can automatically compare prices and place orders globally, but the underlying fund settlements are still firmly tied to the localized regulatory framework and dollar-centric structure. This dislocation of “global willingness and local constraints” makes the ideal of multi-currency and multi-priced assets hard to realize in the short term. The exit of CNHT is just a microcosm: technology can be globalized, but institutional and habitual factors cause most transactions to revert to a few dominant priced currencies.
Regulatory High Pressure and Compliance Declarations: Platforms Seek Survival in the Gap
● Dual Narrative of Leading Platforms: In the controversies surrounding “denying the dismissal of the investigative team due to Iranian fund issues,” Binance has continuously released compliance statements, attempting to maintain a delicate balance between regulatory authorities and market participants. On one hand, platforms need to emphasize their investments in KYC, AML, and sanction compliance to gain regulatory space; on the other hand, they must avoid being overly seen as “regulatory tools” at the market level, thus harming users' expectations of their neutrality and safety.
● Testing by Mid-tier Platforms: Compared to leading platforms like Binance, mid-tier exchanges such as Gate test regulatory red lines and market appetite more through the rhythm of new coin listings, design of derivative products, and compliance disclosure strategies. Although the briefing did not list specific new listing names or leverage parameters, the strategy of “following yet not completely following” basically outlines their situation of repeatedly balancing between compliance pressure and business growth.
● Future Regulation Will Only Be Stricter: Before the arrival of the high-frequency trading era driven by AI agents, global regulatory agencies are likely to tighten their requirements on source of funds, sanction enforcement, and anti-money laundering. Intelligent agents may complete complex cross-platform and cross-chain operations in milliseconds, which also means that any arbitrage, money laundering, or sanction evasion behavior could be “algorithmically amplified,” which forces infrastructure to possess more comprehensive auditing and tracking capabilities from the outset.
● Who Can Become the Default Entry Point for AI Agents: In such a context, a key question arises—whoever establishes an auditable and accountable foundation with sufficient performance first has the greatest hope of becoming the default trust entry for AI agents. Whether it is the chain itself, layer two networks, or trading platforms, the ability to deeply integrate compliance interfaces, risk control systems, and high-performance execution environments will determine how much “machine traffic” it can handle in the age of intelligent agents.
Technological Dividends Clash with Regulatory Realities: Who Will Take the Entry Ticket to the AI Era?
● Intersection of Three Main Lines: Looking back at the aforementioned dynamics, it is clear that three main lines are intertwining: first, the explosive expectation of transaction volume and automation level brought by AI agents; second, around this expectation, the infrastructure and dollar-centric asset market are undergoing structural adjustments; third, insider investigations, compliance disputes, and product delisting events constitute a long line that continually pulls at the boundaries of industry trust.
● Migration of Scarce Resources: In the last cycle, the focus of industry competition was on computing power and capital—whoever secured mining machines, graphics cards, and funding had greater discourse power. In the context of AI agents and e-commerce on-chain, however, the truly scarce resources are quietly shifting: compliance-trustworthy high-performance settlement layers, along with the regulatory interfaces, auditing tools, and developer ecosystems built around them, are the key weights determining the future landscape.
● Outline of Future Landscape: It can be anticipated that, within the next one to two years, a very few chains and asset combinations that are compliance-friendly, perform well, and are developer-active will have the opportunity to become the factual infrastructure for AI trading, while more projects lacking compliance endorsement or technological moats will gradually become marginalized under the pressure of liquidity and attention. Actions like Tether's reduction of CNHT, Arbitrum's selection of 15 teams, and exchanges streamlining product lines are essentially all preemptively “choosing sides.”
● A Ticket List Quietly Rewritten: Before the next wave of AI and e-commerce truly materializes, every investigation related to fund flows, every compliance statement, and every product delisting and adjustment actually silently rewrites an industry “ticket list.” When intelligent agents begin to dominate internet transactions, looking back at these seemingly scattered events today, we may find that they mark the starting point of the new order's construction.
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