Report: Cryptocurrency is becoming the default payment layer for AI Agents, with 98.6% of transactions settled in USDC

Keyrock's latest report shows that crypto rails are gradually becoming the default payment layer for AI Agents. Over the past year, AI Agents have completed more than 176 million transactions via blockchain, with a settlement amount exceeding 73 million dollars.

As AI Agents begin to autonomously purchase data, cloud computing power, API services, and AI inference resources, the traditional bank card payment system has struggled to adapt to high-frequency, ultra-small payment scenarios. Currently, about 76% of Agent payment amounts are below 30 cents, while some on-chain stablecoin transfer costs are only "a fraction of a cent." Coinbase, Stripe, Google, and Visa have all begun to lay out the infrastructure for machine-to-machine payments. Among them, Coinbase's x402 protocol allows AI Agents to directly use USDC to pay for on-chain analysis and cloud service fees.

Data shows that currently, 98.6% of AI Agent payments are settled in USDC. The report suggests that this further strengthens Circle's important position in the crypto payment field, but it also means that the industry's reliance on a single stablecoin issuer is increasing.