AI agents are becoming a new customer for creators. They can search, compare sources and act on information. The unresolved question is how they access trusted research and pay for it without relying on scraped content or pushing creators into another race to the bottom.

In this episode of the WRAP UP, I sit down with Michael Blau, founder of Drip, to discuss the emerging infrastructure behind machine-to-machine content payments. Drip gives AI agents a way to discover and purchase premium financial newsletters, podcast research and specialist analysis.

We unpack why financial research is an early use case for this model. An agent analysing a company, sector or trade does not need a full media subscription. It may need one analyst’s view, a historical newsletter archive or a specific data point. That creates a new commercial model for independent publishers: make their work available to agents and earn when it is actually used.

We also discuss what this means for the economics of the creator business, the role of protocols such as x402 and MCP, and why payment, permissions and attribution need to work together before agentic research can scale.

In this conversation:

• Why Drip began with independent financial publishers
• How AI agents can discover and pay for premium research
• The role of stablecoins in machine-to-machine payments
• What x402 and MCP enable in an agentic content economy
• Why back catalogues may become valuable assets for creators
• How pay-per-use could sit alongside traditional subscriptions
• Why stock research is an early test case for agentic content payments
• Whether AI-generated research should compete in the same marketplace
• How creators can control access to their work and retain attribution
• Why specialised analysts may become more valuable as agents look for reliable context

The conversation goes beyond the creator economy. It is about a basic question for the internet: when software can consume information and make purchases, who gets paid, how is trust established, and what changes when the buyer is an agent rather than a person?

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Banks spend more than $60 billion a year on core banking, yet much of the industry still runs on decades-old technology.

In this episode of the WRAP UP, I sit down with Martin Della Chiesa, CEO of Skaleet, to discuss why replacing legacy core banking systems remains so difficult and how cloud-native, modular and real-time infrastructure is changing the market.

We discuss why the biggest competitor for next-generation core banking providers is often the status quo, why major migrations can still take 18–24 months, and how modern platforms can help banks and fintechs launch new products in as little as six months.

We also get into AI and agentic commerce. Martin explains why banks cannot fully take advantage of AI agents if their underlying infrastructure is not API-based and real-time, how AI could make legacy migrations easier, and why Skaleet is building infrastructure that could allow AI agents to trigger payments on behalf of customers.

We cover:

• Why core banking remains such a fragmented market
• Legacy systems vs next-generation core banking
• Why banks keep postponing core modernization
• Modular architecture and faster product launches
• The real cost and complexity of core migrations
• AI agents and the future of payments
• Why real-time infrastructure matters for agentic commerce
• How AI could help banks understand and replace legacy code
• The three things banks should evaluate when choosing a core banking provider
• Why an 800-row RFP spreadsheet may be the wrong way to choose banking technology

A practical conversation about the infrastructure sitting behind modern financial services and what has to change as banking moves into the AI era.

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Why would someone pay with stablecoins when they already have a Visa or Mastercard?

Jess Houlgrave, CEO of WalletConnect, joins me to discuss where stablecoin payments make sense and what is holding them back.

WalletConnect works with around 700 wallets and 80,000 applications, reaching about 800 million end users. Around $400 billion in value moved through the network last year. The company is now pushing further into payments with WalletConnect Pay.

We get into the competition between stablecoins and cards, including the fees merchants pay and the challenge of getting consumers to change how they pay.

Jess explains why stablecoins can work well for cross-border payments and markets where card costs are high. We also discuss whether stablecoins are truly global and whether the market needs so many different stablecoins.

The conversation then moves to AI agents. Jess explains why stablecoins could work well for small AI payments and why moving money is only one part of a payment. Compliance and security still need to be handled.

We also discuss what happens to Visa and Mastercard if stablecoin payments continue to grow, and what merchants should consider before adding crypto payments.

We cover:

• Why merchants would accept stablecoins when cards already work
• Same-hour and same-day settlement and the impact on merchant working capital
• Stablecoins vs Visa, Mastercard, PIX and Faster Payments
• Whether stablecoins are actually global
• Why emerging markets are seeing strong stablecoin demand
• Whether the market needs hundreds of different stablecoins
• What stablecoins could mean for card network pricing
• Why payments require more than moving money from A to B
• Stablecoins, AI agents and micropayments
• How AI agents could buy products and services on our behalf
• What merchants should look for when choosing a stablecoin payment provider

A practical conversation about where stablecoins genuinely improve payments, where existing rails remain stronger, and how the two could coexist.

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