report: Crypto rails are becoming the default payment layer for AI agents, report says

A new report from Keyrock says stablecoins on blockchain rails are becoming the go-to payment layer for AI agents as traditional card rails struggle to handle micropayments. What to know : AI agents settled more than $73 million across 176 million blockchain transactions over the past year, according to Keyrock, though that remains a tiny fraction of the global payments market. Coinbase, Stripe, Google and Visa are building competing infrastructure for machine-to-machine payments as software agents increasingly buy data, computing power and digital services autonomously. Nearly all agent payments currently settle in USDC, highlighting both Circle’s growing importance in crypto payments and the risks of relying heavily on a single stablecoin issuer.