Stripe Warning: AI Agents Will Drive Blockchain Demand to 1 Billion TPS per Second

Stripe CEO Patrick Collison and Co-founder John Collison warned in their annual open letter released on Tuesday that as AI agents gradually take on the primary role in online transactions, blockchain networks may need to process up to 1 billion transactions per second (TPS) to support this trend. They also pointed out that existing blockchains have a significant scalability gap.

Estimating AI Agent Transaction Scale: From Thousands to Billions of TPS

(Source: Stripe) The Stripe founders explicitly stated in their open letter that AI agents have moved beyond the “hype” stage and are entering a new era of building and “real-world experiments,” with expectations that AI agents will quickly become the main transaction executors on the internet.

“We believe that agents are likely to be responsible for most internet transactions very soon, and we may need blockchains capable of supporting over a million, even a billion transactions per second,” they wrote.

They cited the 2025 memecoin trading frenzy as an example to illustrate the fragility of current systems: during a peak traffic period, a Bridge user experienced payment delays of over 12 hours, with a single transaction fee soaring to 35 times the usual amount. This issue is based on current scale, and future demands from AI agents will multiply such problems.

Five Capability Levels of AI Agents

Stripe outlined a five-level evolution framework for AI agents in their open letter:

• Level 1: Filling out forms — automating web form completion, already available
• Level 2: Descriptive search — finding results based on contextual descriptions rather than specific attributes
• Level 3: Persistent memory — remembering user preferences, needs, and past behaviors
• Level 4: Task delegation — executing specific tasks like shopping on behalf of users
• Level 5: Predictive services — proactively providing solutions without prompts

Stripe notes that current AI agents are in a transitional phase between Level 1 and Level 2, and achieving the last three levels will lead to exponential growth in transaction demand.

Blockchain Reality Gap: Current Throughput vs. AI Era Needs

According to real-time data from Chainspect, the two fastest public chains are Internet Computer Protocol (ICP), with an average of about 1,196 TPS and a peak of 25,621 TPS, with a theoretical maximum of 209,708 TPS; and Solana, with an average of about 1,140 TPS and a peak of 5,289 TPS, with a theoretical max of 65,000 TPS.

These two chains are currently the only public chains with daily averages exceeding 1,000 TPS, but their maximum theoretical capacities still fall short of Stripe’s estimated 1 billion TPS by three to four orders of magnitude. This stark contrast clearly shows that even the most advanced existing blockchains are insufficient to meet the massive transaction throughput required once AI agents become widespread.

Stripe believes that solving this gap is not only about technical scalability of individual chains but also about building interoperability across the entire blockchain ecosystem. “Just like the early internet, the future success of smart commerce depends on universal interoperability,” they stated.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does Stripe predict blockchain needs 1 billion TPS?

Stripe expects AI agents to rapidly become the primary executors of online transactions, replacing humans in tasks like shopping and payments. As the number and frequency of AI agent transactions explode, current blockchain throughput of thousands of TPS will be far insufficient, leading to an estimated eventual demand of up to 1 billion transactions per second.

What is the current fastest blockchain TPS?

Based on Chainspect data, ICP and Solana are the only two public chains with daily averages exceeding 1,000 TPS. ICP averages about 1,196 TPS with a theoretical maximum of 209,708 TPS; Solana averages about 1,140 TPS with a maximum of 65,000 TPS. Both are still far from Stripe’s estimated 1 billion TPS requirement.

How do the five levels of AI agents defined by Stripe impact blockchain demand?

The first two levels involve relatively limited transaction density; however, levels three to five involve persistent memory, active task delegation, and predictive services. Agents will continuously perform a large number of microtransactions without human intervention, which is the core driver pushing blockchain TPS needs from hundreds of thousands to billions.