Venturing deeper into artificial intelligence commerce, Mastercard is developing a new payments system configured to let autonomous agents move funds across cards, bank accounts, and stablecoins.
On June 11, the company launched Agent Pay for Machines, presenting the service as infrastructure for software that can purchase services, settle small transactions, and communicate with other machines without a human agent needed to initiate every payment. The product comes after Mastercard’s broader Agent Pay program and is targeted at high-frequency, low-value transactions that can continue to operate in the background of digital commerce.
Mastercard’s list of partners shows how much of the product is being built around digital-asset infrastructure. Among more than 30 companies supporting the rollout are Coinbase, Ripple, OKX, Polygon, MoonPay, Aave Labs, Alchemy, Anchorage Digital, BVNK, Stripe, Cloudflare, and the Solana Foundation. For the company, stablecoins are not just a separate crypto experiment but are becoming one settlement option within a broader network for AI-driven commerce.
The service Agent Pay for Machines is created for use around credentialing, permissioning, transaction routing, and settlement. Corporate customers can set spending rules and authorization limits, while verified agents are allowed to transact across providers. The system supports settlement across multiple payment types, including cards, accounts and stablecoins, according to Mastercard.
Jorn Lambert, chief product officer, said the product could trigger conditions for a “superbloom of AI business models,” with agents transacting with services at scales, amounts, and speeds that traditional payment systems do not have the capacity for.
The product launch has been timed during a year when Mastercard has been widening its digital-asset footprint. While its crypto partner program has pulled in names across exchanges, infrastructure providers, and payment companies, the company recently expanded stablecoin settlement support affiliated with regulated tokens including Circle’s USDC and Ripple’s RLUSD.
The announcement is another sign for cryptocurrency firms that stablecoins are being considered working payment infrastructure, not just trading liquidity. The next indication is whether agent-led commerce produces real transaction volume beyond pilots and partner announcements.
