How to set up a Circle Agent Wallet for USDC

On May 11, 2026 Circle launched the Agent Wallet as part of its Agent Stack. The Agent Wallet is a programmable USDC wallet built for AI agents. It can hold funds, pay for services and operate with spend caps, allowlists and time‑bounded sessions. Setup and operation use the Circle CLI, an email one‑time passcode login and OTP‑gated mainnet spending policies.

The Agent Stack packages the Circle CLI, Agent Wallets, an Agent Marketplace and Gateway nanopayments, all available at agents.circle.com. The CLI package is published as @circle‑fin/cli. Circle’s launch materials describe transfers at machine speed and nanopayments as small as $0.000001, with payments possible via the x402 protocol.

Operators must install the CLI and the Circle skills and meet Node.js requirements; Circle documentation lists Node.js v20.18.2 or later. The CLI requires interactive acceptance of the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy on the machine where wallet commands run; Circle instructs that a human must give explicit consent rather than setting an environment flag. Login uses an email one‑time passcode that creates a seven‑day session, with separate sessions for mainnet and testnet. Circle provides interactive and non‑interactive login options and recommends confirming session status with the CLI before proceeding.

After authenticating, teams list existing wallets and create an agent wallet on a supported chain using the CLI. Commands that return balance or address information require a –chain flag. Circle’s documentation lists supported chains including Arbitrum, Arc testnet (Arc mainnet pending), Avalanche, Base, Ethereum, Monad, OP Mainnet, Polygon PoS and Unichain. Circle advises confirming the live chain list with the blockchain service before production deployment.

A funded wallet is required for agent payments. Operators can fund a wallet directly in USDC or deposit funds into Circle Gateway when agents will make high‑frequency, gasless nanopayments. Gateway is designed for very small transfers and is commonly used in buyer‑side nanopayment flows that pair service discovery with instant payment.

Spending policies apply to mainnet agent wallets only and are often rejected on testnets. Policy types include per‑transaction limits and rolling windows for daily, weekly and monthly caps, plus recipient and contract allowlists or blocklists. Limits must follow the rule per‑transaction <= daily <= weekly <= monthly. Setting or changing a mainnet policy triggers a second email OTP to authorize the change. Operators can verify or reset limits through the CLI; those actions are OTP‑gated.

Circle’s recommended sequence for setup is to install the CLI and skills, accept terms with explicit human consent, authenticate by email OTP, create and fund the wallet, then configure mainnet spending limits. Sessions last seven days and policy changes require OTP confirmation; testnet environments do not support spending limits, so teams should finish policy configuration on mainnet before allowing autonomous agent spend.