Mastercard launches stablecoin payments for AI agents

Mastercard on June 10 introduced Agent Pay for Machines (AP4M), a payments infrastructure designed to let autonomous AI agents and machines execute payments and settle transactions using stablecoins across Mastercard’s global network. The platform supports programmable digital assets and continuous settlement between software-driven parties.

AP4M offers multi-rail settlement across card rails, bank accounts and stablecoins, and includes infrastructure for programmable digital assets. Initial participants named by Mastercard include Coinbase, OKX, Polygon, RippleX, MoonPay, Aave Labs, Alchemy, BVNK and the Solana Foundation. The company said the service is meant to allow software agents to coordinate services and buy digital resources while settlements happen in the background.

The system is built to support microtransactions, continuous settlement flows and operations at machine speed, areas that traditional payment systems were not designed for. Mastercard described components for credentialing, transaction authorization, spending controls, auditability and verifiable intent verification to support automated transactions.

Jorn Lambert, Mastercard’s chief product officer, said: “Machine payments can make it possible for services to be bought and sold among agents at fundamentally different scales than payments today.” The company positioned AP4M as a verification, permissioning and settlement layer rather than an AI platform provider.

Coinbase stated that AI agents are creating “entirely new forms of commerce” that require payments to move “at machine speed.” RippleX characterized regulated stablecoin settlement as “an emerging enterprise standard for autonomous systems.”

Mastercard emphasized controls and governance features in AP4M, citing the need for stronger oversight as AI agents gain autonomy. The platform’s support for stablecoin settlement reflects industry interest in using regulated stablecoins as backend infrastructure for automated digital commerce, enabling programmable and near-instant value transfer between systems.

The launch arrives as stablecoin infrastructure is part of U.S. financial policy discussions following the passage of the GENIUS Act. Mastercard framed its role as providing trust and settlement functions across both traditional payment rails and blockchain-based systems, enabling companies and networks to build services where machines can transact with ongoing settlement and audit trails.