AI Agents Flood Crypto Market with Autonomous Payments

The next billion users of cryptocurrency may not be human, but AI agents that make autonomous payments online.

According to Coinbase's x402 protocol, over 165 million payments worth $50 million have been processed, with approximately 99% using the USDC stablecoin.

Ai agents are buying data, computing power, and API access for tasks such as cloud storage and software development.

Cloudflare, Mastercard, MoonPay, and Circle are building payment tools for AI agents, including wallets that work like corporate cards.

Mastercard is testing a voucher-based system called Agent Pay for Machines, while Visa and DBS Bank have run a trial using credit cards for agent purchases.