AI agents need machine-speed money; enter stablecoins

As AI agents move from answering queries to spending money, banks are working on developing rails for mass deployment. AI and digital assets such as stablecoins are converging, with digital assets serving as "machine-native money" for autonomous agents, BlackRock , the world’s biggest asset manager, stated in a white paper released Sept. 22. [caption id="attachment_57389142" align="alignright" width="341"] (AI generated/ChatGPT)[/caption] Its digital assets team wrote that card networks and automated clearing houses already support a great deal of automation, but onboarding requirements and settlement economics make them a poor fit for always-on, very low-value transactions. The paper said stablecoins are likely to lead to transactional use eventually. “Soon you will start seeing agentic payments come to digital assets,” Michael Levens , vice president and financial services payments lead at consultancy Capgemini , told FinAi News . “It will make transactions quicker and more efficient.” Effect on banks Levens said AI and digital assets are most likely to meet in agentic payments, the settlement layer beneath agent-driven commerce, rather than at the front end. Consumers will use agents to make purchases in usual currencies to optimize rewards, but agent-to-agent transactions will be completed with stablecoins or other similar assets for speed and traceability, he said. SoFi , for one, teamed up with Mastercard on Sept. 22 to launch live stablecoin settlement for its $25 billion annual payment volume card program, according to a Mastercard release. Much of the discussion involving stablecoins over the past few years has been about financial institutions testing or preparing for their use, Radi El Haj , chief executive of payments company RS2 , told FinAi News . “The important point is not simply that a stablecoin is being used, it’s that the technology is being integrated into payment infrastructure that banks, merchants and consumers already use,” he said. “Customers can continue paying by card, and merchants do not suddenly need to become blockchain specialists. The change is happening deeper within the settlement layer.” Use of stablecoins by agents One major use case emerging in the financial services industry is treasury management, Levens said. Many FIs are deploying agentic tools for treasury management, and stablecoins can make liquidity management near real-time and less expensive. Other use cases are also driven by agent-to-agent payments, Preethi CN , director of AgentCore at Amazon Web Services , told FinAi News. AWS teamed up with Coinbase and Stripe to allow its agents to conduct micropayments in stablecoins, namely U.S. Dollar Coin [USDC], according to FinAi News ’ prior reporting. Agents can make payments of less than $1 in stablecoin to other agents on behalf of the user, Preethi CN said. Stablecoin is the payment because, unlike other digital assets, its price is fixed and the receiver and payer take on much risk in accepting or disbursing the payment. Growth of stablecoins Stablecoins, tokenized deposits and Central Bank Digital Currencies will account for about 4% of global payments volume by 2030, according to Capgemini's World Payments Report 2027, released on Sept 24. With the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act of July 2025 being a tailwind to stablecoin growth, many banks and payment providers will develop products that allow clients to access stablecoins, Levens said. “Banks have existing relationships and will leverage that to avoid seeing customers go to someone else,” Levens said. FinAi Lending Summit, set for Oct. 7-8 in Las Vegas, will include speakers from Fifth Third and Capital One as well as a fireside chat with U.S. Bank Senior Vice President – Lending Operations Group Manager Suzanne Rathbun . To learn more about the 2026 event and register, visit here .

AI agents need machine-speed money; enter stablecoins

Nearly 4% of global payments could use stablecoins, tokenized deposits by 2030, report says

Vena grows context engine with Morpheo AI acquisition

Acquisitions bring AI consulting in-house

Related Posts

Affirm CEO: Agentic commerce will be messy at first, but AI will learn

Block forecasts first income from AI in Q4

Mastercard deepens OpenAI tie-up, betting tokenization will scale agentic commerce

Acquisitions bring AI consulting in-house

EMERGING FINTECH DIRECTORY

FinAi Podcast

SPONSORED

The Next Generation of Cyberthreats: Powered by AI

Build an Antifragile Strategy to Outperform the Market

How AI and Product Experts Turn Fuzzy Requirements Into Focused Dev-ready Roadmaps

Connect

Welcome Back!

Retrieve your password

Continue Reading with FinAi News Premium - Less than $2/Day

AI agents need machine-speed money; enter stablecoins

Nearly 4% of global payments could use stablecoins, tokenized deposits by 2030, report says

Vena grows context engine with Morpheo AI acquisition

Acquisitions bring AI consulting in-house

Related Posts

FinAi Podcast

Connect

Welcome Back!

Retrieve your password

Unlock This Article

Continue Reading with FinAi News Premium - Less than $2/Day