Stablecoins could become the default medium of exchange in a rapidly emerging economy where autonomous AI agents transact with one another, according to Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire, who said that traditional payments are too slow, expensive and cumbersome for the world being built.
Circle is a fintech firm and the issuer of USD Coin (USDC), the second-largest dollar-backed stablecoin behind Tether.
Stablecoins, unlike other forms of cryptocurrencies, maintain a consistent price when pegged to another asset such as the US dollar.
Speaking during the Where Are We on Stablecoins discussion at the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, Allaire argued that the combination of mature blockchain networks, smart contract platforms and increasingly autonomous AI systems is pushing finance toward “machine-to-machine” payments, and that stablecoins are uniquely suited to power it.
“Stablecoins are becoming the backbone of payments for AI agents,” Allaire said.
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“We now have very mature blockchain networks that can execute code via smart contracts that are publicly verifiable. This is crucial when verifying transactions between AI agents,” Allaire said.
“Taking out a visa card or firing up a bank wire is absurd. We need a medium of exchange that can scale to fractions of a cent, with speed and interoperability across applications and devices.”
The conversation coincides with a boom in companies working out how they can leverage autonomous AI agents, software tools that can make decisions, place trades, process data, and even purchase goods or services without human approval.
More than 700 AI agent startups launched on Stripe last year alone, a sign that the infrastructure layer for autonomous commerce is accelerating.
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Unlike large language models such as ChatGPT, these agents can be configured to operate independently, including making payments. That raises an immediate bottleneck, as traditional financial rails weren’t designed for machines that transact 24/7, in tiny increments, and across borders.
AI agents don’t sleep. They trade around the clock, parsing charts, on-chain data, liquidity conditions and market sentiment in real time. Smart contracts such as those employed on the ethereum (ETH-USD) network handle execution, while blockchain verifies each transaction.
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Payment firms are already adapting. Stripe has rolled out expanded tools and developer support to help businesses integrate stablecoins and emerging AI-driven commerce, enabling new programmable payment flows.