Payments giant Stripe has announced a preview version of its new “machine payments” tool, enabling developers to charge AI agents directly using USDC on the Base network and Coinbase’s x402 protocol (with plans to expand supported options).

The mechanism is designed for automated, programmatic payments between machines:

🛑 A developer creates a payment request (for example, for HTTP requests or API usage) 🛑 Stripe generates a deposit address 🛑 Payment details are passed to the AI agent 🛑 Transaction status is tracked via API, webhooks, or dashboard

This enables autonomous, on-chain microtransactions without traditional banking rails.

At the same time, CoinGecko has launched API endpoints supporting the x402 protocol, shifting toward a pay-per-use model.

AI agents can now access:

• market data
• on-chain analytics

at a fixed rate of $0.01 in USDC per request, without requiring account registration or API keys.

This development reinforces a broader thesis:

• AI agents will increasingly transact autonomously
• microtransaction-heavy models challenge traditional banking systems
• stablecoins and Layer 2 networks are becoming core financial infrastructure

If AI-driven automation scales as expected, tools like Stripe’s machine payments could accelerate the shift toward crypto-native settlement for machine-to-machine economies.

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