Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said stablecoins could become a default payment rail for AI agents as artificial intelligence takes on more financial tasks and machines increasingly transact for people and other machines. Speaking Thursday at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's inaugural Innovation Advisory Committee meeting in Washington, D.C., Armstrong said AI could help financial firms identify vulnerabilities before hackers exploit them, expand access to financial guidance and improve very small, rapid and cross-border payments. He rejected the assumption that AI agents would automatically cause widespread market manipulation, comparing them with existing algorithmic trading systems and urging regulators to address demonstrated risks rather than every hypothetical scenario. The meeting also covered crypto's regulatory evolution, AI and compute in derivatives markets, prediction markets and novel event contracts. Separately, the CFTC proposed removing an order-book requirement for certain permitted transactions on swap execution facilities, saying the books have been rarely used; the proposal would give facilities more discretion over trade execution and allow 30 days for public comment after Federal Register publication.