Tel Aviv, Israel, May 12th, 2026 - Fuse Network published a strategic roadmap focused on making its Layer 1 blockchain the settlement backbone for AI-enabled commerce and last-mile payments. The document states a core conviction: the primary barrier to bringing blockchain payments to small merchants and local commerce is infrastructure, not regulation or consumer willingness to adopt.
According to the roadmap, artificial intelligence agents remove the final technical hurdles that previously prevented small businesses and independent operators from accessing blockchain-based payment rails. Historically, the long tail of the economy - from street vendors to local delivery networks and freelancers - has lacked the resources to deploy on-chain payment solutions because integration required dedicated development teams and budgets. Fuse argues that agentic AI changes that calculus by enabling non-technical businesses to connect to programmable payments and on-chain settlement without maintaining a technical staff.
The network’s vision emphasizes direct, permissionless interaction with financial infrastructure. Rather than focusing on offering cheaper alternatives to existing card rails, Fuse aims to give every user and business custody of a private key so they can transact without intermediaries extracting fees. The roadmap highlights that the same transaction rails can serve both a neighborhood merchant and an AI agent executing a microtransaction in under 200 milliseconds at fractions of a cent.
To support this model, Fuse is integrating native compatibility with several emerging agentic payment standards, including x402, MPP, UCP, ACP, and ERC-8183. The team also plans to build a dedicated Fuse MCP server designed to expose these primitives to AI tools and agents operating on the network.
“What we want to enable on Fuse is a business that gets a point of sale for free, an e-commerce storefront for free, the ability to sell online with zero friction, and no dependency on centralized platforms taking large percentages,” said Mark Smargon, CEO and Co-Founder of Fuse Network. “The end game isn’t onboarding institutions. It’s giving every business and every user a private key. That changes everything.”
On the consumer-facing side, Fuse operates Solid, described in the roadmap as a non-custodial neobanking application that combines stablecoin and Ethereum yield with a Visa debit card accepted in 49 countries. Solid users who generate yield, transact with the card, or otherwise access financial services on the platform create ongoing on-chain activity for Fuse. The roadmap states that Solid will be extended to support lending, insurance, index funds, and equities, all built on the same non-custodial architecture.
Doubling down on Layer 1
Fuse highlights operational resilience as a differentiator: Fuse Chain has run without a single hour of downtime since 2019, a continuous live history the roadmap frames as evidence of production readiness. The document notes the validator network is undertaking a major upgrade while transaction fees on the chain remain consistently low.
Over the past two years, the infrastructure buildout produced a proliferation of new chains and drove many networks toward Layer 2 solutions. Fuse evaluated that direction and decided against relying on L2 for its core use case. The company’s stated rationale is that Layer 2 technology is, in its view, insufficiently decentralized and operationally unstable relative to what is required for programmable, agent-native last-mile commerce. The roadmap also asserts that the practical distinctions between L1 and L2 are narrowing as sovereign chains align on execution, ownership, and economics, returning market focus to the characteristics Fuse already claims.
As a result, Fuse will double down on its Layer 1 chain. The roadmap frames this choice as a match between the demands of real-world, programmable commerce and the properties Fuse Chain already demonstrates: speed, low cost, continuous live operation over seven years, and an orientation toward payments.
Key takeaways
- Fuse positions infrastructure - enabled by agentic AI - as the critical enabler for last-mile blockchain payments, allowing non-technical businesses to access programmable settlement.
- The network will natively support multiple agentic payment standards and build a Fuse MCP server to make these capabilities available to AI tools and agents.
- Fuse is expanding its Solid non-custodial neobanking app into lending, insurance, index funds, and equities, with on-chain activity from users feeding network usage.
Sectors impacted: fintech and payments, small and medium-size businesses (SMBs), AI-enabled commerce, and blockchain infrastructure.
Risks and uncertainties
- Reliance on L1 over L2: Fuse’s roadmap reflects a judgment that L2 technology is insufficiently decentralized and operationally unstable for its use case. If that assessment changes or if L2 solutions mature differently, the competitive dynamics for infrastructure could shift. Sector impacted: blockchain infrastructure and payments.
- Adoption constraints: the roadmap asserts AI removes the developer barrier for small businesses, but the timeline and path to broad adoption among the long tail of merchants are not specified in detail. Sector impacted: SMB commerce and fintech.
- Roadmap timing and execution: the publication describes planned integrations and product extensions, but the document does not provide specific timelines for those steps, leaving execution risk for the expansion of Solid and agentic payment support. Sector impacted: fintech product rollout and operational planning.
About Fuse Network
Fuse Network describes itself as the first EVM-compatible blockchain built for real-world payments, launched in 2019 with a vision to make stablecoins practical for everyday businesses and their customers. The organization says it constructed a vertically integrated stack designed for last-mile payments, enabling SMBs, everyday users, and AI agents to transact on the same rails.
Contact
Founder & CEO - Mark Smargon
[email protected]
More information is available from Fuse Network's published roadmap.