AI Agent · Google · Stripe · Circle · Coinbase · CoinDesk
Crypto rails are becoming the default payment layer for AI agents, report confirms
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Artificial intelligence (AI) agents autonomously spending money online is still a tiny market, but some of the world's largest tech, payments and crypto firms are already racing to build the infrastructure for it, Keyrock said in a new report.
Key facts
- The crypto trading and investment firm estimated that AI agents settled over $73 million across roughly 176 million transactions on blockchain rails between May 2025 and April 2026
- Some 76% of agent transactions fall below the 30 cent fixed-fee floor common in card payments, according to the report
- Most payments ranged between one and 10 cents, making traditional rails impractical for automated software agents buying data, AI inference or API access
- Currently, 98.6% of machine payments settle in USDC, the stablecoin issued by Circle (CRCL)
Summary
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. The crypto trading and investment firm estimated that AI agents settled over $73 million across roughly 176 million transactions on blockchain rails between May 2025 and April 2026.