News
Daily developments, policy and market moves across agentic payments and the agent economy.
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a16z's Five Charts Break Down Argentina's Stablecoin Reality: Dollarized Payments in an Inflationary Economy Pave the Way for Agent Payments
a16z uses five charts to showcase real-world stablecoin use cases in Argentina—from savings to cross-border remittances and everyday transactions. The data reveals genuine demand for dollarized payments in an inflationary economy and offers a blueprint for AI agent payments in similar environments.
BIS Chief Douses Stablecoin Hype: Not a Scalable Payment Tool, Reigniting Regulatory vs. Market Tensions
Agustín Carstens, General Manager of the Bank for International Settlements, publicly rejects stablecoins as a credible scalable payment mechanism, sharply contrasting with market optimism and sounding an alarm for compliance in emerging use cases like AI-agent payments.
UOB and HSBC Complete Swift Blockchain Tokenized Deposit Cross-Border Transfer
Singapore's UOB becomes the first Singapore-headquartered bank to go live on Swift's blockchain-based ledger, following HSBC and Standard Chartered's initial transaction last week.
Dunamu Partners with Visa to Advance Stablecoin and AI Payments
The Korean digital asset exchange will explore stablecoin settlement, AI agent payments, and cross-border remittance use cases with Visa's global network.
Circle Deploys Native USDC and EURC on Plasma, Integrates CCTP Cross-Chain Protocol
Stablecoin issuer Circle has launched native USDC and EURC on the Plasma Layer 1 network, along with CCTP and Bridge Kit, expanding its multi-chain footprint.
China's Payment & Clearing Association Issues AI Agent Payment Guidelines, Introducing "Know Your Agent"
Regulators issue compliance guidelines for AI agent payments, mandating explicit user authorization, per-transaction records for large amounts, and pre-settlement screening by payment service providers.
Agent Payment Protocols Race: A Comparative Analysis of x402, AP2, MPP, and ACP
Fireblocks' latest report benchmarks four leading AI agent payment protocols—x402, AP2, MPP, and ACP—highlighting key differences in authorization, settlement speed, and compliance readiness as the industry awaits a unified standard.
XDC Network: AI Agents Could Disrupt Invoicing and Card Payment Flows
Enterprise blockchain XDC says AI agents could compress B2B payment cycles from days to minutes, while urging the industry to adopt a 'Know Your Agent' framework for compliance.
Coinbase: AI Agents Process 205 Million Transactions via x402 Protocol
The crypto exchange reports that machine-to-machine payments using the HTTP 402-based protocol have surged, driven by high-frequency, low-value use cases like data labeling and compute scheduling.
Circle CEO on USDC and AI Payments: Next Five Years Focused on Agent Payment Compliance
Jeremy Allaire sees machine-to-machine payments as the next growth engine for stablecoins, with compliance infrastructure becoming a prerequisite.
UAE's Zand Bank Integrates USDC, Plans Dirham-Pegged Stablecoin to Accelerate Cross-Border Payments
Zand Bank, a UAE digital bank, now supports USDC for transfers and settlements, and is developing a dirham-backed stablecoin to cut costs and speed up cross-border transactions, pending regulatory approval.
USDC Captures 99.3% Share of x402 AI Agent Payments
Circle's USDC stablecoin dominates machine-to-machine payments on the x402 protocol, signaling a pivotal shift in autonomous agent commerce.