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4h ago

Circle Launches Agent Stack to Let AI Agents Transact in USDC

The move pushes machine-to-machine commerce with gas-free micropayments that software can trigger on its own.

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Overview

  • Circle unveiled the Agent Stack Monday, opening a command-line tool, agent wallets, an agent marketplace, and a nanopayments protocol to developers and AI agents.
  • The nanopayments protocol moves USDC without gas fees in transfers as small as $0.000001, which enables rapid, high-frequency payments between software services.
  • The stack treats AI agents as the end users and uses policy-controlled wallets so software can hold money, pay for services, and follow preset spending rules.
  • Circle also reported quarterly results with $77 billion USDC in circulation, a 28% year-over-year increase, and announced a $222 million Arc token sale that values Arc at $3 billion as CRCL shares rose nearly 16% Monday.
  • Other major firms are building similar rails for agent payments, including efforts from Amazon with Coinbase and Stripe, Google Cloud with the Solana Foundation, and MoonPay.