HONG KONG — Crypto finding a new niche as the payments tool of choice for machines, bitcoin BTC$66,410.59 not yet at rock bottom, U.S. regulatory changes and the role of prediction markets were some of the topics discussed at CoinDesk's Consensus Hong Kong conference this week.

"As AI agents become capable of making and executing decisions independently, we may begin to see the early forms of what some call the machine economy, where AI agents can hold and transfer digital assets, pay for services and transact with one another onchain," said Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po.

These tools may be used to automatically book hotels and flights or make other purchases, Binance CEO Richard Teng said during a fireside chat on Thursday.

"If you think about the agentic AI, so the booking of hotels, flights, whatever purchases that you would make, how you think that those purchases will be made — it'll be via crypto and stablecoins," he said. "So, crypto is the currency for AI, if you think about it, and that's how it's going to pan out."

Other participants discussed market volatility. Bitcoin has already fallen nearly $30,000 in a month, and some industry viewers fear it may drop further before hitting a bottom. Market participants are looking at $50,000 as one level to watch, several individuals told CoinDesk.

Similarly, the sentiment around betting markets is starting to turn negative. Traders said they were concerned the platforms might suck out liquidity from "productive sectors," and in turn cause a "negative wealth effect."

On the regulatory front, though Hong Kong's policymakers' announcements took center stage, industry participants told CoinDesk they were closely watching U.S. lawmakers and the negotiations around crypto market structure legislation.

One person said the U.S. market is large enough that it has outsize influence on other locales, and so some regulators are waiting to see how the U.S. lands before taking on policymaking in crypto.

Hong Kong does not appear to be one of these jurisdictions. The Securities and Futures Commission is moving ahead with various proposals to bring crypto companies further into the regulatory sphere.