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UNIMastercard opens AI agent payments with Coinbase and Base support
Mastercard says it has completed end-to-end pilots of a platform that lets AI agents buy digital services using stablecoins, with Coinbase, Base and BVNK supplying the crypto infrastructure.
Why it matters: Mastercard is positioning itself as a trust and authorisation layer for AI agents that pay in stablecoins, tying blockchain settlement to mainstream card-rail infrastructure.
Key points
- Mastercard completed pilots of Agent Pay for Machines with Cloudflare, Coinbase, Base, BVNK, AIsa, Ant International and Hype.
- In a demo, an AI agent made nine payments to two providers and generated eight campaign images within an approved budget.
- Payments use the x402 protocol, with Coinbase Developer Platform wallets and Base for settlement; BVNK was acquired for $1.8bn.
Mastercard is opening early developer access to its AI agent payments system after completing end-to-end pilots of Agent Pay for Machines, the company said. The platform lets autonomous software buy digital services such as data, computing power and image generation within spending limits set by its human operators.
The payments giant said partners in the pilots included Cloudflare, Ant International, AIsa, Base, BVNK, Coinbase and Hype. At Cloudflare Connect it showed a marketing agency, Hype, tasking an agent with planning a protein bar campaign. After budget approval, the agent made nine payments to AIsa for social media research and to Cloudflare AI Gateway for eight generated images, without separate accounts or billing relationships.
The system runs on x402, an open protocol that lets services request payment through the HTTP 402 status code. An agent produces a digitally signed voucher within its authorised budget, which the provider checks before delivering the service. Transactions are authorised offchain and providers can redeem vouchers later.
What to watch: Mastercard's early-access programme is now open to developers, offering buyer- and seller-side APIs, documentation and a testing environment.
Live updates on NewsFeeds:StablecoinsDesk editor: Keshav Aggarwal (accountable for this page; this summary was not edited by hand)
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