BlockBeats report: On May 26, the crypto market maker Keyrock, in collaboration with Coinbase, Tempo, and Virtuals Protocol, released the report "Who Pays the Agent?" stating that AI agents are rapidly becoming significant participants in on-chain economies. Data shows that between May 2025 and April 2026, AI agents executed approximately 176 million on-chain transactions with a total settlement value exceeding $73 million.
The report indicates that the average single payment amount for AI agents is only $0.31 to $0.48, revealing the emergence of a machine-native micropayment economy. Approximately 76% of these transactions fall below Visa’s fixed fee threshold of $0.30, making traditional card and banking payment systems ill-suited to meet AI’s high-frequency, low-value, autonomous payment needs.
Data shows that 98.6% of AI Agent payments are settled in USDC. As of Q1 2026, over 104,000 AI Agents have been registered. According to the report, a USDC transfer on the Base network costs approximately $0.0001, representing just about 0.03% of a $0.31 transaction amount, offering a significant cost advantage over traditional payment systems.
The report suggests that stablecoins are gradually becoming the "default monetary infrastructure" for economic activity between AI and machines. However, Keyrock also warns that the current AI payment ecosystem's heavy reliance on USDC poses centralization risks, meaning the entire emerging AI payment system is largely dependent on the regulatory environment and infrastructure stability of a single stablecoin issuer.
In addition, several technology and payment companies have begun developing AI Agent payment infrastructure, including Coinbase’s x402 protocol, Stripe and Tempo’s Machine Payments Protocol (MPP), Google’s AP2 delegated payment system, and Visa’s expanded tokenized payment credential service.
The report also notes that current regulatory frameworks, including Europe’s MiCA, the U.S. GENIUS Act, and the EU AI Act, still lack comprehensive regulatory standards for AI-driven autonomous financial transactions and machine-to-machine payments.