Crypto Payments Become Foundation for AI Agents
Explore how crypto payments are becoming essential in the realm of AI agents.
Table of contents
Crypto Payments Become Foundation for AI Agents
According to a report by Keyrock, cryptocurrency payments are proving to be more suitable for transactions between artificial intelligences (AI agents) than traditional payment systems. From May 2025 to April 2026, AI agents conducted over 176 million transactions totaling more than $73 million, with the majority of transactions conducted through USDC (a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar).
Role of Crypto Payments in AI Infrastructure
The primary application of crypto payments in the AI agent environment is related to payments for data, computing power, APIs (application programming interfaces), and content. An example scenario is given with a trading agent that independently settles for market information and cloud storage services using micropayments, which is difficult to implement with traditional payment cards.
Architectures of Agent Payments
Keyrock has identified several key architectures for executing agent payments:
- Coinbase’s x402
- Machine Payments Protocol by Stripe and Tempo
- Agent Payments Protocol by Google
- Payment infrastructure by Visa for AI commerce
These architectures form a new payment stack covering various levels of interaction, which, according to Keyrock, contributes to the evolution of financial infrastructure.
Economic Impact and Forecasts
Major corporations have already invested more than $8 billion in developing infrastructure for AI agent transactions. Significant impetus to the segment was given by companies Coinbase and Stripe, which began collaborating with AWS Bedrock AgentCore Payments. Gartner and McKinsey project that by 2028, the volume of purchases mediated by AI agents could reach $15 trillion, and the retail agency commerce market will amount to $3–5 trillion by 2030.
New Partnerships and Technologies
There is also cooperation between Solana Foundation and Google Cloud, which presented a new payment system Pay.sh for AI agents in May. This marked an important milestone in the integration of crypto payments into existing ecosystems.
Conclusion
The use of crypto payments in AI lays the foundational groundwork for a new financial infrastructure, ensuring:
- Reduction of costs and increased efficiency of micropayments.
- Continuous development of technological solutions by Coinbase, Stripe, Visa, and Google.
- Long-term growth of transaction volumes.
- Threats in the form of cryptocurrency market instability and regulatory challenges.
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