Visa and Stripe act simultaneously: AI agents can make autonomous payments, and stablecoin payment infrastructure enters a new stage

Gate News Report, March 19 — As the integration of artificial intelligence and stablecoin payments accelerates, traditional payment giants and blockchain projects are simultaneously entering the “AI Agent Payments” track. Cuy Sheffield, head of Visa Crypto Labs, announced the launch of an experimental tool called Visa CLI, which allows AI agents to directly complete payment transactions while performing tasks, marking a further extension of programmatic payment capabilities toward automation and intelligent agents.

According to reports, Visa CLI uses a command-line interface, enabling developers to input commands that allow AI to automatically handle payments during coding, service calls, and other processes. A key feature of this tool is support for card payment modes that do not require API keys, reducing the risk of sensitive information leaks and enhancing the usability of AI agents in real-world commercial environments.

On the same day, Tempo, a blockchain project supported by Stripe, officially launched its mainnet and released a Machine Payments Protocol tailored for AI intelligent agents. Tempo is positioned as a high-throughput payment network focused on stablecoin settlements, aiming to meet the payment needs of AI systems in high-frequency trading scenarios. The project team stated that as AI gains the ability to perform complex tasks, its reliance on real-time transactions and fund flows is rapidly increasing.

The protocol emphasizes cross-network compatibility, enabling standardized calls across different payment systems. In addition to traditional bank cards and e-wallets, the solution extends to on-chain payment pathways such as the Bitcoin Lightning Network, providing AI agents with more diverse settlement options.

At the industry level, the US’s leading centralized exchange (CEX) previously introduced the x402 standard, and integration with projects related to Sam Altman indicates that the infrastructure for AI and stablecoin payments is forming a new technological stack. Current trends show that AI agents are not only information processing tools but are gradually evolving into autonomous economic participants capable of executing trades independently.

As payment protocol standards advance, scenarios involving AI automatically executing procurement, settlement, and cross-border payments are expected to accelerate, further deepening the integration between digital assets and traditional financial systems.