AI Agents Spur New Payment Infrastructure Across Crypto and Card Networks

Ethereum is introducing the ERC‑8004 "Trustless Agents" standard to give AI agents on‑chain identity, reputation and validation data, a move that could streamline billions of machine‑to‑machine transactions. Solana is positioning itself as a hub for tokenized‑stock trading, reporting a six‑fold increase in such activity and now handling over 95% of tokenized equity trades.

Meanwhile, the United States' major card networks are preparing for an "agentic" future. Mastercard’s CFO Sachin Mehras said the firm is expanding its infrastructure for AI‑powered commerce through a service called Agent Pay, and CEO Michael Miebach added, "We expect cards will prevail in an agentic world." Visa’s CEO Ryan McInerney echoed the sentiment, stating, "Agentic commerce is a when, not an if," and outlined new products such as Agent Score, Agent Directory and partnerships with OpenAI and Meta to secure AI‑initiated transactions.