Circle Builds Agentic AI Payment Tools, Bets on Commercial Potential of AI Agents

USDC issuer Circle Internet Group is seeking to turn programmable, cross-chain and near-instant onchain settlement into a payment rail that allows AI agents to autonomously purchase services and transact with one another. The strategy matters because machines could make large volumes of high-frequency micropayments for which traditional cards and human authorization processes may be ill-suited.

Circle launched Circle Agent Stack on May 11, 2026, initially offering Agent Wallets, Agent Marketplace, Circle CLI and Nanopayments powered by Circle Gateway, with payments as small as one-millionth of a dollar. A May 21 report quoted Chief Financial Officer Jeremy Fox-Geen as saying the market's “Uber moment” had not yet arrived, but new business models would generate payment demand.