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Stablecoin firms bet big on AI agent payments that barely exist - BLOOMBERG
BY Emily Mason
(Bloomberg) — Circle Internet Group Inc. (CRCL) and Stripe Inc. (STRI.PVT) are racing to build payments systems for a world that doesn’t exist yet — one where autonomous AI agents transact millions of times a day, settling in stablecoins instead of swiping credit cards.
Two weeks ago, a Citrini Research scenario imagining AI agents routing around card network fees sent Visa Inc., Mastercard Inc. and American Express Co. shares tumbling as much as 5% in a single session. The selloff faded. The disruption thesis didn’t.
Instead, the idea migrated from a speculative Substack post into earnings calls, and accelerated enthusiasm around product launches and blockchain buildouts.
On its Feb. 25 earnings call, Circle Chief Executive Officer Jeremy Allaire argued that stablecoins could become the native currency of machine-to-machine commerce.
“We’re building a new internet financial system, and I think we’re very optimistic that Circle can play a really key role in this convergence between AI and stablecoins and blockchain,” Allaire said.
Circle Internet Group (CRCL)
The stablecoin industry is now positioning agentic payments, high-frequency, low-value transactions between software agents, as a use case to justify the entire infrastructure buildout.
Investors have piled into both companies, though not solely for the agentic vision. Circle shares surged after a blowout earnings report, and Stripe recently notched a $159 billion valuation driven by $1.9 trillion in payment volume. The agentic bet is layered on top of businesses already growing without it.
The pitch for stablecoins has always been cross-border, faster and cheaper than legacy rails. Domestically, the case is harder to make. Agentic payments offer a way around that problem: a use case where the technology’s advantages over cards aren’t incremental but structural. That gap has left the industry searching for its next growth narrative, and AI agents are fast becoming a key part of that story.
In a separate interview after the earnings call, Allaire drew a distinction between consumer-facing AI commerce and what he sees as the bigger opportunity.
“The problem to solve is not how does an agent buy something on Amazon, I think those problems can be solved in more simplistic ways, which is your AI having a safe way to use your credential with a confirmation from you,” Allaire said. “The real opportunity is all of the things that AIs need to consume from each other.”
