Circle Launches Nanopayments Testnet for Gas-Free USDC Transfers by AI Agents

Circle issues the US dollar stablecoin USDC. Traditional accounts, credit cards and per-transaction blockchain Gas fees are ill-suited to the frequent, low-value payments AI agents make when purchasing API access, computing power or data. Built on Circle Gateway, Nanopayments allows machines to make autonomous payments using the x402 standard, providing payment infrastructure for the agent economy.

Circle announced the launch of the Nanopayments testnet on March 10, 2026, with individual USDC payments as low as $0.000001. The system verifies and aggregates thousands of signed authorizations offchain before settling them onchain in batches, eliminating per-transaction Gas fees for users. As of February 2026, it supported 11 testnets, including Arbitrum, Arc, Base and Ethereum.