Circle makes USDC push into AI agent payment tools
Circle launched a suite of tools designed to let AI agents hold wallets, discover services and make programmable payments using $USDC, as companies race to build financial infrastructure for autonomous software systems. The products, released under Circles new “Agent Stack,” include agent-focused wallets, a command-line developer interface, a marketplace for agentic services and a nanopayments protocol for machine-to-machine transactions. Circle said the nanopayments infrastructure supports gas-free $USDC ($USDC) transfers as small as $0.000001 and is designed for high-frequency autonomous payment flows between software systems. The company said the tools are built to allow AI agents to transact autonomously within predefined permissions, spending controls and policy guardrails across supported blockchains and payment networks. The rollout also includes Circle CLI, a command interface for developers and AI agents building applications on Circles platform, and Agent Wallets, which the company said are designed for agents to hold, send and manage funds independently. Circle is the issuer of the $USDC stablecoin, the second-largest stablecoin by market capitalization with roughly $78 billion in circulation, according to DeFiLlama data. Shares of Circle (CRCL) were up around 18% in midday trading and more than 51% over the past month. Source: Yahoo Finance Source: Yahoo Finance Stablecoins emerge as payment rails for AI agents Circles launch comes