Payment giant Stripe has announced a preview version of its "machine payments" tool. This solution allows developers to charge AI agents using the stablecoin USDC on the Base network and the x402 protocol.

Autonomous agents are an entirely new category of users to build for, and, increasingly, to sell to.

Today, we’re launching (a preview) of machine payments on @stripe—a way for developers to directly charge agents, with a few lines of code. 🤖💸

$ Let’s start tinkering… ⤵️

— Jeff Weinstein (@jeff_weinstein) February 10, 2026

Product manager Jeff Weinstein noted that the company plans to expand the list of supported assets, blockchains, and protocols in the future.

Technical Implementation

The system is based on the PaymentIntents API, which allows businesses to programmatically charge agents for HTTP requests, API usage, or Model Context Protocol calls.

The solution is built on the open standard x402 from Coinbase, utilizing the previously inactive HTTP status code 402 (“Payment Required”) to conduct on-chain transactions directly within web requests.

Weinstein emphasized that the traditional financial system is designed for humans and does not meet the needs of AI agents, who require microtransactions, global 24/7 availability, and guarantees of instant finalization.

How it works:

  • The developer creates a PaymentIntent;
  • Stripe generates a deposit address;
  • The payment details are sent to the agent;
  • The transaction status is tracked via API, webhooks, or dashboard.

Taxes, refunds, and reporting are handled through standard Stripe tools. Direct interaction with crypto components for developers is optional. For testing, the company has released a CLI tool called purl and provided code samples in Node and Python.

Company Valuation

The product announcement coincided with Bloomberg's report about Stripe preparing a new tender offer. This deal could raise the fintech giant's valuation to $140 billion, a 31% increase from last year's figure of $107 billion.

In 2023, the company raised $6.5 billion in a Series I funding round led by Thrive Capital.

CoinGecko Introduces Microtransactions

Meanwhile, aggregator CoinGecko has launched API endpoints supporting x402. This integration shifts the service to a pay-per-use model.

Now, autonomous agents can access market and on-chain data for a fixed rate of $0.01 USDC per request, without needing to register an account or have an API key.

Functionality

The tool provides access to quotes and metrics for over 18,000 assets across 250 networks, enabling developers to create autonomous arbitrage scanners and on-chain risk monitoring systems.

The interaction is based on a "handshake" principle. When accessing the endpoint, the server returns a response with code 402 and payment details. The agent conducts the transaction in USDC and attaches the confirmation to the subsequent request, which instantly grants access to the information.

Notably, analysts at JPMorgan suggested that Stripe could lead the "dual revolution in artificial intelligence and money movement."