Coinbase Enables USDC Payments for AI Agents, Eyes Autonomous Commerce Growth

Coinbase is expanding its services to include AI agent payments for businesses in USDC. The company, which has processed over $1 billion in combined payments and trading volume since launching Coinbase Business in June 2025, sees this as a major growth area. According to Coelho-Prabhu, head of Coinbase Business, the company began investing in this idea several years ago after concluding that AI agents would become a significant force online.

The feature uses the same Coinbase Business account that companies already use to receive payments from people and allows businesses to manage, reconcile, and convert agent payments without creating a separate checkout flow. Agents can create wallets, receive funds, and pay merchants across Base and other supported networks, with USDC as the settlement layer.

Coinbase is positioning USDC as the settlement layer for autonomous commerce and views agent payments as one of its highest-conviction growth areas. The company has signed up about 5,000 customers to Coinbase Business and is also expanding its agent trading tools and developer software.