Visa Says Stablecoins Will Be Core Infrastructure for the AI Agent Economy

Visa said stablecoins are set to become a core payment tool in the age of artificial intelligence agents.

In a report published on July 16 with blockchain analytics firm Artemis, the payments company said stablecoins will play a central role in micropayments in the AI agent economy.

The report divides the AI agent economy into two broad categories: macro commerce and micro commerce. Macro commerce refers to routine transactions that AI performs on behalf of users, such as bookings and subscription payments. Micro commerce covers frequent sub-$1 transactions, including API calls and the use of AI computing resources.

Visa is focused on micro commerce. It said traditional card networks are well suited to macro commerce, but their fee structure makes very small transactions uneconomical. Stablecoins, by contrast, are emerging as a practical alternative because they can significantly reduce transaction costs.

Visa said the AI agent economy will likely develop into a hybrid payment structure that combines traditional payment networks with stablecoins. In that model, card payments would handle authentication and consumer payments within existing merchant networks, while stablecoins would be used for real-time settlement between AI agents.

"Cards and stablecoins are not in competition. They are becoming different components of a single system," Visa said. It added that its goal is to support interoperability between card-based trust and authorization systems and stablecoin-based settlement between AI agents.

Separately, Visa recently joined the OpenUSD, or OUSD, project, a new dollar-backed stablecoin designed to compete with Tether's USDT and Circle's USDC.