Sharplink CEO: AI Agents to Cut $1.4 Trillion in Finance Fees by 2035

AI agents could remove roughly a quarter of global finance fees by 2035, according to Sharplink CEO Joseph Chalom.

The model from his team estimates that investors would save $1.4 trillion annually. Chalom, who previously worked at BlackRock, shared the projection in an X post on Wednesday.

A $4 Trillion Opportunity and a $180 Billion Oversight

By 2030, Chalom's model indicates over $1 trillion in annual financial services revenue will be contested. He expects that amount to climb to $4 trillion annually by 2035.

The model assumes that agents will force financial providers to compete more aggressively on fees. Consumers would then keep an additional $350 billion per year by 2030, before that figure rises to $1.4 trillion.

Chalom also highlights the roughly $15 trillion that US households hold in checking, savings, and short-term deposits. Much of that money earns well below money-market rates, which he says costs savers at least $180 billion a year.

“Over $1 trillion of annual global financial services revenue is going to be up for grabs by 2030, growing to $4 trillion annually by 2035. Every major bank, broker, payments firm, and digital assets company is racing to capture a share in one of the most important battles over money and value we will see in our time,” he said.

Visa, Coinbase, and Circle Jostle for the Agent’s Wallet

According to Chalom, the battle to control AI agents is already underway. He lists Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, PayPal, Circle, Tether, Robinhood, Coinbase, and Binance as some of the participants.

The victor, in his estimation, would also determine the products agents suggest and the destination for idle cash.

“Whoever owns the infrastructure, owns the agent, and therefore the customer,” Chalom added.

BlackRock issued a research paper this week making a similar argument, identifying stablecoins as the top choice for agent transactions.

Chalom contends that agent-based transactions will mostly take place in areas with high concentrations of stablecoins, tokenized assets, and DeFi liquidity, with the Ethereum (ETH) ecosystem currently hosting much of that activity. He cites Ethereum's April record of 3.6 million daily transactions as proof of increasing network usage.

This view aligns with Sharplink's own holdings. The firm possessed 891,714 ETH as of September 14, per its dashboard.

A more cautious perspective came from Fidelity Digital Assets in August. Senior research analyst Max Wadington cautioned that agent activity could be absorbed by closed systems operated by technology and fintech companies.