Visa and Mastercard Join Forces with Crypto Firms to Set Rules for AI Agent Payments

The Agentic Payments Alliance has formed to create shared standards for AI agent payments. The alliance includes 26 member companies, including Visa and Mastercard, which have already developed their own protocols for verifying agent identity. Visa's Trusted Agent Protocol uses cryptographic signatures in merchant requests, while Mastercard's Agent Pay for Machines platform allows machine-speed transactions across cards and accounts, plus stablecoins.

The Alliance aims to create a rulebook for AI agent payments that can be used by all member companies, rather than each company developing its own incompatible version. This is crucial as McKinsey has projected that AI agents could mediate $3 trillion to $5 trillion of global consumer commerce by 2030.

The Alliance's early work includes shared research on agent identity and tests for authorization standards. It also means advocacy on regulatory questions that haven't been settled yet.