The "Token Heist" Wiping Out AI Startups | Emily Sands (Stripe)

Is the internet ready for AI agents to take over our wallets and run their own businesses? In this episode of The MAD Podcast, Stripe's Emily Sands reveals how agentic commerce is rapidly shifting from a hypothetical concept to deployed financial infrastructure. From combating the rising existential threat of token theft to solving the bottleneck of "vibe deployment", Emily unpacks the shared payment tokens and real-time billing systems required to securely scale autonomous digital buyers and highlights a near future where agents operate as independent, end-to-end micro-firms. Emily Sands LinkedIn -   / egsands   X/Twitter - https://x.com/emilygsands Stripe Website - https://stripe.com X/Twitter - https://x.com/stripe Matt Turck (Managing Director) Blog - https://mattturck.com LinkedIn -   / turck   X/Twitter - https://x.com/mattturck FirstMark Website - https://firstmark.com X/Twitter - https://x.com/FirstMarkCap Listen on: Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/7yLATDS... Apple - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... 00:00 — Cold open & Intro 01:24 — The rise of agentic e-commerce 02:11 — The spectrum of agent-led purchases 03:16 — How merchants adapt to AI-driven commerce 05:50 — Defining the levels of autonomy in AI shopping 07:08 — What is the Agent E-Commerce Protocol (AEP)? 08:49 — Shared payment tokens and secure AI transactions 09:58 — Who is adopting the Agent E-Commerce Protocol? 11:38 — Can agents negotiate and sell products? 13:32 — The macroeconomic impact of AI agents 14:46 — The boom of solopreneurs and AI-driven business creation 16:56 — Why building trust is the biggest roadblock for AI commerce 20:19 — How link wallets improve payment security 21:21 — Improving the user experience in AI shopping apps 23:16 — How the Link Wallet sets guardrails for AI agents 25:40 — One-time use virtual cards vs flexible AI wallets 28:03 — Unpacking the shared payment token primitive 29:59 — How stablecoins enable profitable AI microtransactions 35:03 — Managing liability: Who is at fault if an agent goes haywire? 36:38 — Why agent payments might be safer than human transactions 37:41 — What is Vibe Deployment? 40:13 — Why Stripe built Stripe Projects for agent deployment 41:22 — Why Stripe cares about orchestrating app deployments 42:50 — How tokens break the traditional SaaS billing model 44:34 — Why AI companies are moving to hybrid and usage-based billing 47:15 — Streaming payments and real-time token tracking 48:42 — The massive data challenge for AI company accountants 50:41 — Token theft: The fastest-growing fraud in the AI economy 52:04 — The cottage industry of free trial and multi-account abuse 54:16 — How fraudsters monetize stolen AI tokens on the dark web 01:00:06 — How Stripe Radar uses network density to fight AI fraud 01:01:15 — Tempo's role in the Agent E-Commerce Protocol 01:04:12 — The AI startup ecosystem is accelerating business creation 01:09:01 — The token cost shock: Are buyers getting carried away? 01:11:19 — 2026 Predictions: Agents running businesses end-to-end