Visa: "Stablecoins Will Be the Micro-Commerce Engine of the AI Agent Economy"

As of July 16, 2026, the global payment landscape is facing its most significant turning point since the introduction of credit cards. At the recently held "Visa Payments Forum 2026," Visa announced that while artificial intelligence (AI) is innovating the front end of commerce, stablecoins are reshaping the back-end payment settlement structure. This shift heralds the full-scale birth of the "Agentic Economy," where millions of autonomous machine-to-machine transactions occur.

AI is transforming the front end of commerce, and stablecoins are reconfiguring the back end.

Visa defines "Agentic Commerce" as a system where AI agents make purchasing decisions and complete payments on behalf of users. Existing payment networks were designed with human intervention in mind, making high fees and complex approval processes a hurdle; however, programmable stablecoins are identified as a key driver to eliminate this friction. Visa anticipates that stablecoins will become the standard for micropayments in an economic system led by autonomous agents.

Hybrid Rails: Combining Cards and Stablecoins

Visa has adopted a hybrid approach that uses a mix of existing card networks and stablecoin rails depending on the stage of the AI agent's task. This structure allows for the selection of the most efficient payment method based on the nature and scale of the task performed by the agent. For example, large-scale contracts are handled through existing financial networks, while micro-transactions such as data purchases are processed instantly via stablecoin networks.

• ['에이전트 스코어링(Agent Scoring): 자율 거래의 신뢰도를 실시간으로 평가하는 시스템이다.', '에이전틱 레지스트리(Agentic Registry): 등록된 AI 에이전트의 신원을 확인하고 권한을 관리하는 명부다.', '대규모 트랜잭션 모델(Large Transaction Model): 자동화된 거래의 통제와 보안을 강화하기 위해 도입된 새로운 데이터 모델이다.']

Visa's stablecoin settlement infrastructure recorded explosive growth during the first half of 2026. As of April 2026, Visa's stablecoin payment processing volume reached an annualized $7 billion, representing an approximately 50% increase compared to the first quarter of 2026. This growth demonstrates that Visa is integrating stablecoins as a core means of actual commercial settlement, moving beyond mere experimentation.

In terms of technical scalability, Visa strengthened its infrastructure by expanding the number of supported blockchain networks from four to nine. Currently, more than 130 stablecoin-linked card programs are operating in over 50 countries worldwide, and Visa is accepting USDC inflows at the settlement layer between issuers and acquirers. This serves as a global foundation for AI agents to perform 24-hour instant settlements regardless of borders.

Eliminating Friction in Micro-payments and the Competitive Landscape

Traditional payment networks incur a fixed fee of approximately $0.30 per transaction, making them economically inefficient for processing micro-transactions of less than $1. In contrast, stablecoin-based micro-payments drastically reduce the fee burden, enabling micro-transactions such as data purchases or API fee payments between AI agents. Visa believes these cost savings will accelerate the expansion of the agent economy.

Competition for market leadership is also intensifying. Visa is competing directly with crypto-native solutions such as Coinbase's x402 protocol. As of April 2026, Coinbase is leading the market with 69,000 agents and 165 million transactions processed. Stripe also joined the AI payment market in earnest by adopting the x402 protocol in February 2026.

Late 2026, the Realization of Agent Commerce

Visa predicts that agent commerce will enter the stage of mass adoption in the actual market starting from the 2026 year-end holiday season. Given that Visa's annual transaction volume reaches 200 billion, even a slight increase in agent penetration will create a massive new traffic layer. As payment points accepting agent identifiers spread globally, a new economic ecosystem where millions of autonomous payments occur daily is expected to be established by the end of 2026.