AI Agent Gets ID and Wallet on the Same Day | Rewire News Morning Brief

On the same day, Sam Altman's World and Coinbase integrated identity verification and stablecoin payments into the AI Agent pipeline, and NVIDIA unveiled the full implementation of the Agent Commerce Protocol at GTC the following day. The Agent economy went from concept to infrastructure in a week.

1｜AI Agent Gets ID and Wallet on Same Day

World released AgentKit, allowing the AI Agent to carry a "proof-of-personhood" cryptographic credential via zero-knowledge proof, with 17.9 million globally verified users. On the same day, AgentKit integrated the x402 protocol developed jointly by Coinbase and Cloudflare, enabling Agents to conduct microtransactions with stablecoins autonomously. Coinbase's Head of Developer Platform Engineering, Erik Reppel, stated, "Payments are the how of Agent commerce, identity is the who."

At GTC the next day, NVIDIA added the third pillar: the Retail Agentic Commerce Blueprint, fully implementing OpenAI's Agentic Commerce Protocol while remaining compatible with Google's Universal Commerce Protocol. Consumers using ChatGPT or Gemini could theoretically complete the entire search-to-checkout process through an Agent. World's forecast suggests that the Agent economy could reach $3–5 trillion by 2030. The identity layer, payment layer, and business protocol layer all went live in the same week, shaping the Agent economy's infrastructure faster than anticipated by all.

(Source: CoinDesk / TechCrunch / NVIDIA Blog)

2｜The Entire AI Industry Stands Behind Anthropic

The four major tech industry associations (CCIA, ITI, SIIA, TechNet) submitted an amicus brief to the court, requesting a pause on the Pentagon's "supply chain risk" characterization of Anthropic. Behind these four associations are Google, OpenAI, Meta, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Adobe, Cloudflare, Accenture, Deloitte. Hearing on March 24.

The issue arose when Anthropic requested a commitment from the U.S. military not to use its models for fully autonomous weapons and domestic large-scale surveillance, to which the Pentagon responded by categorizing it as a supply chain risk—a designation historically reserved for foreign adversaries. Anthropic anticipates revenue losses of several billion dollars by 2026.

At the surface, it's a company-military contract dispute; underneath, it's a question never formally answered: Does an AI company have the right to restrict the use of its technology by government clients? The entire industry provided its own answer in a court filing.

(Source: Axios / CNBC / NPR)

3｜Powell's Penultimate Act, Iran War Weighs on Inflation Expectations

The FOMC's March meeting concludes today, with the rate decision and dot plot set to be released at 2 a.m. Beijing time tomorrow. The market expects rates to remain unchanged at 3.5%-3.75%, with CME FedWatch showing over a 92% probability of a hold. The suspense lies not in the rate itself but in the dot plot: the January median forecast was only one cut this year, and the energy price surge from the Iran conflict could further squeeze that number.

Powell's term ends on May 15. This is his penultimate press conference as Fed Chair. The Hormuz blockade, soaring oil prices, and resurging inflation expectations all weigh on his final two pressers. Every word he says today about inflation will be dissected.

(Source: CNBC / Kiplinger / J.P. Morgan)

4｜NVIDIA to Rewrite Telco Networks into Inference Grids

On the second day of GTC, NVIDIA unveiled the AI Grid architecture to transform carriers' base stations, data centers, and edge nodes into a distributed inference grid. In a Comcast benchmark test: inference costs in a distributed setup were 76% lower than in a centralized one, P99 latency for surge traffic was under 500 milliseconds, and peak throughput reached 42,000 tokens per second. Nokia and T-Mobile are already implementing AI-RAN collaboration. A unified control plane automatically routes workloads based on latency, data sovereignty, and cost.

Jensen Huang's story on Monday was about GPUs selling to data centers; on Tuesday, the narrative shifted to the entire telecom infrastructure becoming an inference engine. From chip to OS to grid, this front is lengthening by the day.

(Source: NVIDIA Technical Blog / blockchain.news)

5｜Day 18 of Iran War, Pentagon's Budget Gap Widening

According to CSIS estimates, Operation Epic Fury cost $3.7 billion in the first 100 hours, with a daily cost nearing $900 million. Budget analysts project direct military expenses for the entire war to range from $400 billion to $950 billion, the majority of which is not within the current defense budget. The Pentagon will soon need additional appropriations from Congress. As the Strait of Hormuz remains closed into its third week, the UN World Food Programme warns that the war is driving up global food and fertilizer prices.

Iran has chosen to attack neutral and friendly countries (Oman, Qatar, Turkey), the UK's Cyprus airbase was hit by drones, and the conflict has spread to at least 12 countries. RAND's assessment is: Iran is more likely to choose to continue fighting rather than to concede, and the war trajectory may be longer than Washington expects. The cost curve and timeline of this war are both spiraling out of control.

(Source: CSIS / Fortune / RAND / Al Jazeera)

Also Worth Knowing ↓

DLSS 5 is NVIDIA's biggest graphical leap since ray tracing in 2018. 3D Neural Rendering plus Generative AI, delivering 4K visuals in real time, set to launch in autumn 2026. NVIDIA has concurrently advanced both its inference infrastructure and consumer graphics at GTC.

(Source: Tom's Hardware)

Germany plans to double AI data center capacity by 2030. It's not about catching up in the race for computing power but rather buying an insurance policy for digital sovereignty. European governments are investing in AI infrastructure as a strategic national asset.

(Source: Tech Startups)

German fintech Upvest raises $125 million, valuing the company at €6.4 billion. Investors include Sapphire Ventures, Tencent, Bessemer, and BlackRock. This company provides brokerage middleware for neobanks like Revolut. The IPO window is warming up, and funding for financial infrastructure layers is accelerating.

(Source: Bloomberg)

The CLARITY Act is stalled in the Senate. Trump's March 8 post called for the SAVE America Act to take priority, with unresolved disagreements over stablecoin yield provisions. This most comprehensive U.S. crypto regulation bill is in line waiting for its turn, and the lobbying at the DC Blockchain Summit these past two days might or might not speed up the process.

(Source: CoinDesk)

38% of altcoins are trading near their cycle lows, with liquidity continuing to concentrate in Bitcoin. Bitcoin's market cap is around $1.33 trillion, while Ethereum struggles below $2,000. The Bitcoin network mined its 20 millionth coin on March 10, with only 1 million coins left until the 21 million limit.

(Source: Fortune / MEXC)