The company is collaborating with Coinbase, Stripe and others to create secure payment systems for AI-driven commerce.
By Helene Braun, AI Boost|Edited by Sheldon Reback Jun 10, 2026, 4:00 p.m. 2 min readMake preferred on (Horacio Villalobos Corbis/Getty Images)Key points:
- Mastercard has launched Agent Pay for Machines, a platform allowing AI agents and software systems to execute secure automated payments across cards, bank accounts, and stablecoins.
- This service aims to instill trust and control in agentic commerce by verifying AI agents, enforcing spending limits, and ensuring settlement through Mastercard's network.
- Over 30 companies, including Coinbase, Stripe, and Adyen, are participating, with initial agent permissions and credentials stored on the Polygon, Solana, and Base blockchains, with plans for wider access later this year.
Mastercard (MA) is positioning itself for a future where AI agents actively engage in economic transactions, aiming to centralize its payment network in this evolution.
The payments leader introduced Agent Pay for Machines (AP4M) on Tuesday, a service that facilitates secure and scalable payments among AI agents and software systems. This platform accommodates automated transactions across various payment methods, including cards, bank accounts, and stablecoins, while offering identity verification, spending controls, and guaranteed settlement through Mastercard's infrastructure.
This initiative emerges as tech, payment, and crypto firms are racing to develop the necessary infrastructure for what is termed agentic commerce, where AI systems autonomously perform tasks, procure services, and manage transactions on behalf of users. Estimates suggest that these agents could be involved in trillions of dollars in transactions by the end of the decade, as reported by some analysts.
According to Raj Dhamodharan, Mastercard's executive vice president of blockchain and digital asset products and partnerships, "We are already seeing a number of services and agents popping up to provide a range of products and services." These services encompass everything from travel bookings and website development to digital art creation and other online tasks.
Dhamodharan emphasized that the primary challenge is establishing trust among these systems.
It is crucial for both businesses and consumers to feel assured that agents are dealing with legitimate parties and adhering to authorized spending limits. Additionally, service providers need confidence that they will receive payments.
"These are challenges we've successfully navigated in the B2B and card payment sectors for decades," Dhamodharan stated. "We are applying the same level of trust and capability to identify the right agents, ensuring payment completion, and guaranteeing that service providers are compensated."
The platform is structured to tackle these issues via credentialing, permissioning, and settlement services. Mastercard noted that the system can authenticate agents, enforce spending regulations, and process payments through multiple methods, including stablecoins.
More than 30 companies have joined this effort, including Coinbase (COIN), Stripe, Adyen, Checkout.com, Cloudflare, RippleX, Polygon Labs, Solana Foundation, and OKX. Mastercard indicated that permissions and credentials linked to AI agents will be initially recorded on the Polygon, Solana, and Base blockchains.
While large-scale machine-to-machine commerce is still in its early stages, Dhamodharan mentioned that Mastercard is already observing demand. He highlighted the growing activity surrounding HTTP 402, a new internet payment standard, where automated transactions frequently fail due to unavailability of payment methods.
"Transactions are already occurring," he said. "There are numerous declines happening because there is no payment option available. We view that as a leading indicator."
Mastercard intends to broaden access to Agent Pay for Machines later this year.
MastercardArtificial IntelligenceAI Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk's full AI Policy.More For You
Netomi CEO predicts $5 trillion AI customer experience market could drive stablecoin adoption
Puneet Mehta, a former high-level Wall Street engineer and data scientist, believes that the swift growth of AI enterprise software will elevate the demand for stablecoins and blockchain.
Key points:
- Netomi CEO Puneet Mehta forecasts that the customer experience market will grow from approximately $500 billion today to $5 trillion by 2030 as AI becomes more integrated into sales, conversions, and upselling.
- Mehta posits that AI and cryptocurrency are complementary, suggesting that autonomous AI agents will require continuous blockchain-based payment systems and stablecoins...