Circle and Proof Team Up to Demonstrate Combined Agent Identity and Payment Protocol
Circle Internet Group and identity protocol company Proof announced on October 19 that they will demonstrate a verification process for AI agent transactions at the Money20/20 conference: the agent first presents verified credentials through Proof's open identity protocol x401, then completes payment via Circle Agent Wallet using the USDC stablecoin over the x402 protocol.
How the Protocols Work
According to the joint announcement, x401 was released by Proof in June this year and borrows the HTTP 401 "Unauthorized" response to let websites explain to agents the identity proof required; x402, based on the HTTP 402 "Payment Required" response, informs agents of the amount due. Combined, merchants can pay identity service providers a verification fee per transaction.
Demonstration Flow
The demonstration process is as follows: the Proof wallet presents the holder's verified credentials and a signed credential for the transaction, the merchant verifies the signature using Proof's published public key, and the agent then pays in USDC via x402, completing the order. Proof founder and CEO Pat Kinsel said this gives merchants a reason to accept agent transactions rather than simply blocking them.
Ecosystem Support
Proof also stated on October 15 that x401 now supports MCP-compatible assistants such as Meta's Muse, ChatGPT dots, Grok, and Claude. The x402 Foundation was established in July with 40 initial member organizations.
Source: https://www.pymnts.com/news/artificial-intelligence/2026/circle-and-proof-help-businesses-trust-ai-agent-transactions/
Provenance & status
- Byline
- OceanAlt Editorial
- First published
- 2026-10-20
- Last updated
- 2026-10-20
- Content type
- Newsflash
- Source material
- View original ↗
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