Tokenized

Why Stablecoins Won’t Kill Cards Ft. a16z Partner Noah Levine

Jul 30, 2026 · 45 min · 12 segments

On Ep. 10 of Agentic Commerce, Cuy Sheffield, Head of Crypto @ Visa, and Bam Azizi, CEO & Founder @ Mesh are joined by Noah Levine, Partner @ a16z Crypto to discuss a new class of merchants and buyers…

On Ep. 10 of Agentic Commerce, Cuy Sheffield, Head of Crypto @ Visa, and Bam Azizi, CEO & Founder @ Mesh are joined by Noah Levine, Partner @ a16z Crypto to discuss a new class of merchants and buyers emerging, stablecoins won't kill cards but fill gaps, Jevons paradox and more! **Timestamps:** - 00:00 Introduction - 2:20 Agentic commerce is still very early in development - 4:14 New class of merchants and buyers emerging - 6:17 Stablecoin and blockchain for AI payment needs - 7:37 Stablecoins won't kill cards but fill gaps - 11:50 Card networks offer trust and brand value - 13:23 Value accrues above payment protocols not in them - 16:45 Wallet aggregation and headless merchants are key - 21:51 Compute orchestration and real time payment opportunities - 29:20 Jevons paradox and streaming payments in finance ***Tokenized is sponsored by Visa*** *A world leader in digital payments, Visa is bridging the gap between traditional financial institutions and innovative blockchain networks, helping players in the payments ecosystem navigate the ever-evolving world of tokenized fiat currencies with confidence and ease. Learn more at* visa.com/crypto*.* ***Tokenized is also presented by Mesh*** *As the first global crypto payments network, Mesh makes it possible for anyone — or any agent — to pay or get paid instantly, from any wallet, on any chain, anywhere in the world. Learn more at* *meshpay.com* *\*\*\** *We’d also like to remind you that the views or opinions of our contributors today are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the companies they are representing. Nothing we say should be taken as tax, financial, investment or legal advice, do your own research!* *Music by Henry McLean*

On Ep. 10 of Agentic Commerce, Cuy Sheffield, Head of Crypto @ Visa, and Bam Azizi, CEO & Founder @ Mesh are joined by Noah Levine, Partner @ a16z Crypto to discuss a new class of merchants and buyers…

Speakers: Noah LevineHostSimon TaylorHostBam AziziGuest

Cold-open & Show Introduction0:00 – 1:35

Noah LevineHost

0:00

There's a bit of, I feel like a skeuomorphic point of view of moving from even e-commerce to agentic commerce, where everyone is thinking about flows where humans are in the loop.

Noah LevineHost

0:08

I think where adoption will-- is going to accelerate significantly is actually when humans are not in the loop.

Noah LevineHost

0:13

In AI today, I think the biggest bottleneck is actually human involvement.

Simon TaylorHost

0:20

[upbeat music] Welcome to Tokenized, the show focused on stable coins and the institutional adoption of tokenized real-world assets.

Simon TaylorHost

0:34

My name's Simon Taylor.

Simon TaylorHost

0:35

I'm your host, author at Fintech Brainfood, and Head of Market Dev at Tempo.

Simon TaylorHost

0:38

And back on our agentic commerce series is Bam Azizi, who's CEO and founder of Mesh.

Simon TaylorHost

0:43

How are you doing, Bam?

0:44

Good, good, good.

0:45

Super excited for this session.

Simon TaylorHost

0:47

Yeah, this is gonna be a good one.

Simon TaylorHost

0:49

Uh, joining us this week is a regular guest on the main show and somewhat of a co-host these days, helping us out when Kai or I have, um, super secret missions to do.

Simon TaylorHost

0:58

Noah Levine, partner at a16z.

Simon TaylorHost

1:00

How are you doing, Noah?

Noah LevineHost

1:01

Doing great.

Noah LevineHost

1:01

Excited to be on the show.

Simon TaylorHost

1:03

Yeah.

Simon TaylorHost

1:03

Excited to get into your agentic commerce thesis.

Simon TaylorHost

1:05

I know you've been writing a lot lately.

Simon TaylorHost

1:07

I know our good friend Sonal speaks very highly of some of your work as well.

Simon TaylorHost

1:11

So, um, before we get into all of that, I need to remind viewers and listeners that the views and opinions of our contributors today are their own and might not reflect those of companies they represent.

Simon TaylorHost

1:21

And please don't take anything we say as tax, legal, or financial advice.

Simon TaylorHost

1:25

This is for informational purposes only.

Simon TaylorHost

1:28

And I'm very happy to remind you, of course, that this podcast is sponsored by our friends at Visa and our friends at Mesh.

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