Web3 Payments Report (2025–2026): Stablecoins, Agent Payments, and Stable Chains Are Reshaping the Future

Imagine this scene: On a morning in 2026, an AI agent quietly operates under your authorization—comparing prices across global data markets, calling three APIs to collect information, paying $0.07 to complete a transaction, invoking cloud computing power and automatically reserving $0.02 for settlement, then paying $0.01 to another agent downstream to generate a report. The entire process occurs without a bank account, credit card, or SWIFT code—and settles in just four seconds. This is not science fiction; it is millions of real transactions being processed right now by x402 and the MPP protocol.

Digital friction is redefining how value flows. In 2025, stablecoins surpassed the combined transaction volumes of Visa and Mastercard with $33 trillion in on-chain settlement volume; over 100,000 AI agents are operating a payment economy invisible to humans—transactions under one cent, but reaching millions per day with near-zero fees. Meanwhile, the global average cost of cross-border remittances remains at 6.36%, settlement still takes 3–5 business days, and 1.3 billion adults remain unbanked. The handover of industrial power over “who defines the next-generation payment infrastructure” is evolving from a Web3 narrative into a structural issue for the global financial system.

This research report will center on Web3 payment infrastructure, systematically deconstructing the paradigm shift in the Web3 payment sector from “narrative-driven” to “infrastructure implementation” between 2025 and 2026, and addressing three fundamental questions that will determine the industry’s trajectory over the next five years: Who will dominate protocol standards? Which infrastructure layers will become entry points for value accumulation? And who will define the market in the spiraling interplay of regulation and commerce?

Author: Rosa, Researcher at Web3Caff Research

Cover: Photo by Norbert Kowalczyk on Unsplash, Typography by Web3Caff Research

Word count: Nearly 26,000 words

Note: Due to length constraints, this report is published in three parts—this is the first part (covering Chapter 1: Macro Context: The Historical Turning Point of Web3 Payments, and Chapter 2: Stablecoins: The Core Infrastructure of Web3 Payments). The middle part includes Chapter 3: AI Agent Payments: The Emerging Machine Economy Layer, and Chapter 4: Payment Giants and Traditional Financial Institutions’ Web3 Strategies. The final part includes Chapter 5: The Rise and Competition in the Stablechain Sector, Chapter 6: Global Regulatory Developments, and Chapter 7: Comprehensive Conclusions and Trend Outlook.

Table of Contents

• Chapter One: Macro Context: A Historic Turning Point for Web3 Payments
• Industry paradigm shift: from narrative-driven to infrastructure realization
• Structural pain points of traditional payments compared to the comparative advantages of Web3 payments
• Merchant payments have crossed the threshold of practicality.
• Chapter 2: Stablecoins: The Core Infrastructure for Web3 Payments
• The market size will experience explosive growth in 2025-2026.
• The U.S. dollar duopoly and reserve yield model are accelerating the integration with traditional financial systems.
• Stablecoin payment use case: Extending from exchange settlement to real-world commerce flows
• Evolution of User Experience Architecture: From On-Chain Assets to Mass Payments
• The rise of "stable chains": Vertical integration of payment-specific infrastructure
• Chapter 3 AI Agent Payments: The Emerging Machine Economy Layer
• The concept of Agentic Commerce and payment requirements
• Agent payment technology stack: a layered architecture from settlement to governance
• Competitive landscape of major protocol standards
• Benchmark case: The significance of AWS AgentCore Payments
• Agent payment risk
• Chapter 4: Web3 Strategies of Payment Giants and Traditional Financial Institutions
• Stripe: Fully transitioning to stablecoin settlement rails
• PayPal: Advancing PYUSD and AI Agent in parallel
• Visa: The two-track stablecoin strategy for card networks
• Mastercard: Advancing both tokenized credentials and stablecoin infrastructure in parallel
• Entry pathways for traditional financial institutions
• Chapter 5: The Rise and Competition in the Stable Chain Sector
• Structural inevitability of the stable chain
• Positioning and comparison of major stable chains
• Future trend prediction: Coexistence of multiple chains rather than a single winner
• Chapter 6 Global Regulatory Updates
• United States: The GENIUS Act establishes a federal regulatory framework
• European Union: Full Implementation of MiCA and Market Restructuring
• Hong Kong, China: A Regulatory Testing Ground for Asia-Pacific
• Cross-sectional comparison of global regulatory frameworks
• Chapter 7: Comprehensive Conclusion and Trend Analysis
• Judgment of industrial development stage
• Five Core Trends
• Future Outlook
• Key structure diagram
• References

Compliance notice: Stablecoins are virtual tokens (Token). Please be aware that regulations and restrictions regarding the issuance and investment in Tokens vary significantly across different countries and regions. In particular, issuing Tokens within Mainland China may constitute “illegal securities issuance,” and providing Token trading matching or other cryptocurrency-related services is considered “illegal financial activity” (Mainland China readers are strongly advised to read <Compilation and Key Highlights of Laws and Regulations Related to Blockchain and Virtual Currency in Mainland China). The following content provides an objective analysis of the progress and market feasibility of stablecoins, aiming to explore how blockchain-supported applications are responsibly developing under global regulatory frameworks. Therefore, please do not make any decisions based on this information, and strictly comply with the laws and regulations of your country or region—do not engage in any illegal financial activities.

Industry paradigm shift: from narrative-driven to infrastructure realization

The Web3 industry is undergoing a profound paradigm shift. The previous narrative around Web3 payments focused primarily on exploring the use of on-chain assets in payment applications, but real-world adoption has long been constrained by asset volatility, user experience challenges, regulatory uncertainty, and insufficient merchant acceptance. The new developments in 2025–2026 mark a shift in growth drivers—from asset price dependence to compliance-driven expansion and infrastructure integration. Stablecoins, as digital assets pegged to fiat currency values, effectively mitigate price volatility within compliant frameworks, becoming the dominant on-chain settlement medium and enabling 24/7 cross-border accessibility. The entry of payment giants and cloud platforms is extending Web3 payments beyond native user communities into traditional business networks.

The key turning point is not the maturity of blockchain technology, but the convergence of three catalysts. First, the stablecoin market has grown large enough to support liquidity demands in real-world commercial scenarios. Second, regulatory frameworks are beginning to clarify, enabling banks, payment companies, and enterprise clients to assess compliance pathways. Third, AI Agents are generating new machine payment demands, exposing structural inadequacies in traditional card networks and banking systems when handling microtransactions, automated authorization, and pay-per-use settlements. Together, these three factors have shifted Web3 payments from the question of “whether it can work” to an industry competition over “who defines the standards, who controls the access points, and who captures value.”

Structural pain points of traditional payments compared to the comparative advantages of Web3 payments

The traditional cross-border payment system faces three structural pain points: first, high costs—according to the World Bank’s Q3 2025 data, the average fee for cross-border remittances is approximately 6.36% [1], far exceeding a reasonable threshold; second, slow processing—SWIFT’s average settlement time is 3 to 5 business days, with multiple intermediary banks resulting in opaque transaction nodes; third, limited coverage—approximately 1.3 billion adults worldwide lack bank accounts, and the traditional financial system provides inadequate service to underbanked regions [2].

Four structural advantages of Web3 payments: First, settlement time can shift from banking business days and correspondent bank pathways to near-real-time on-chain confirmation. Second, the payment network transitions from permissioned account systems to wallet address systems, enabling coverage of users with limited access to bank accounts or difficulties in cross-border fund receipt. Third, transactions are programmable, enabling conditional payments, streaming payments, automated reconciliation, and smart contract escrow. Fourth, the cost structure of microtransactions differs from card networks’ fixed fees, making them better suited for new use cases such as APIs, data queries, and machine-to-machine payments.

However, comparative advantage does not imply complete replacement. The New York Fed notes that local fast payment systems such as FedNow, RTP, same-day ACH, Venmo, and CashApp offer advantages in domestic payments through low cost, immediacy, and regulation, while stablecoins differentiate themselves primarily through global accessibility, the ability to operate without a bank account, and on-chain transfer capabilities. [3] Therefore, stablecoins are most likely to first gain traction in scenarios where traditional systems are clearly lacking, rather than replacing all payment methods uniformly.

Comparison of Traditional Payments and Web3 Payments, sourced from Rosa, researcher at Web3caff Research

Merchant payments have crossed the threshold of practicality.

In 2025, merchant adoption of stablecoin payments surpassed thresholds most retailers never anticipated. According to Artemis Analytics data (reported by Bloomberg), the total on-chain settlement volume of stablecoins reached approximately $33 trillion in 2025, a year-over-year increase of about 72%, exceeding the combined payment volume of Visa and Mastercard [4][5]. Even after excluding “noise” such as arbitrage and bot transfers, Chainalysis estimates the “real economic activity volume” at around $28 trillion—approaching or even surpassing the processing scale of traditional card networks—and believes stablecoin payment flows could match the off-chain transaction volumes of Visa and Mastercard sometime between 2031 and 2039 [4].

Stablecoins are approaching the settlement volume of card networks, driven by merchants' long-standing dissatisfaction with the costs of traditional card networks. Merchants incur three layers of fees for every card transaction: an interchange fee paid to the issuing bank, an assessment fee paid to Visa or Mastercard, and a processor markup. Depending on the card type, transaction method, and merchant category, these three fees typically consume 1.5% to 3.5% of each sale. For a $100 purchase, merchants pay an average of about $2.24 in card processing fees; for a merchant with monthly revenue of $1 million, this translates to approximately $22,400 per month flowing to intermediaries. E-commerce merchants often face even higher costs due to higher assessment fees and fraud risk premiums associated with card-not-present transactions. In addition to percentage-based fees, card settlement cycles tie up merchants’ working capital for extended periods—by early 2026, the average card settlement time was approximately 1.9 business days (nearly 3 calendar days including weekends). For a company with $10 million in monthly revenue, a three-day settlement delay results in roughly $25,000 in financing costs annually. There are also hidden costs from chargebacks: regardless of the dispute outcome, each disputed transaction incurs a fee of $20 to $100 for the merchant, often accompanied by the loss of goods already shipped. [6]

When on-chain settlement volumes have reached parity with card networks, and the fees, locked capital, and chargeback costs of traditional card networks are clearly quantifiable, adopting stablecoin payments for merchants is no longer an experimental观望 — it’s a financially sound decision — marking the crossing of the “practicality threshold.”

Compliance notice: Stablecoins are virtual tokens (Tokens). Please be aware that regulations and restrictions regarding the issuance of Tokens and participation in Token investments vary significantly by country and region. In particular, issuing Tokens within Mainland China may constitute “illegal securities issuance,” and providing Token trading matching or other cryptocurrency-related services is considered “illegal financial activity” (Mainland China readers are strongly advised to review <Compilation and Key Highlights of Laws and Regulations Related to Blockchain and Virtual Currency in Mainland China>). The following content provides an objective analysis of the progress and market feasibility of stablecoins, and aims to explore how blockchain-supported applications are responsibly developing within the global regulatory environment. Therefore, please do not make any decisions based on this information, and strictly comply with the laws and regulations of your country or region—do not engage in any illegal financial activities.

The market size will experience explosive growth in 2025-2026.

The stablecoin market experienced explosive growth between 2025 and 2026. According to data from Artemis Terminal, over the five years since September 2021, the total supply of stablecoins increased by approximately 2.6 times, with non-linear growth. Notably, nearly $100 billion was added in 2025 alone, and on December 12, 2025, the total market capitalization of stablecoins reached a historic peak of $310 billion, further surpassing $323 billion in May 2026. However, market growth slowed during the fourth quarter of 2025 and the first quarter of 2026.

Stablecoin market circulation chart, source: Artemis Terminal

Market growth trends from 2025 to 2026 align with a series of significant events: On January 23, 2025, the White House issued an executive order on strengthening U.S. leadership in digital financial technologies; on July 18, 2025, the Guiding and Establishing National Stablecoin Innovation Act (GENIUS Act) was signed into law. [7] Driven by these two major policies, the United States has officially established a federal regulatory framework for stablecoins.

Growth in the first half of 2025 preceded the signing of the GENIUS Act, likely because the market anticipated that the regulatory framework would soon be clarified, boosting institutional confidence and accelerating deployment in the stablecoin market. Although the GENIUS Act requires stablecoins to be backed 1:1 by Treasury securities and central bank funds, and prohibits issuers from paying interest directly to holders, the global supply of fiat-backed stablecoins has continued to expand without significant impact.

It is worth noting that no stablecoin has yet been issued under the GENIUS Act framework—the full effectiveness of which is set for January 18, 2027 (or 120 days after the regulator issues final rules, whichever comes first).

Chart showing the relationship between stablecoin market capitalization and U.S. policy events, source: Federal Reserve

The U.S. dollar duopoly and reserve yield model are accelerating the integration with traditional financial systems.

The stablecoin market remains highly concentrated in U.S. dollar-denominated assets. According to the stablecoin circulating supply chart from Artemis Terminal, U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoins account for over 99% of the total stablecoin supply. On the issuer side, USDT and USDC have long dominated the market; as of June 9, 2026, USDT holds approximately 59% market share with a market capitalization of about $186 billion, while USDC holds around 24% market share with a market capitalization of approximately $77.4 billion—combined, they account for over 83% of the market. PYUSD, RLUSD, euro-denominated stablecoins, and bank-issued stablecoins represent new supply from compliant issuers such as payment giants and traditional financial institutions.

The business model of stablecoin issuers primarily derives from the yield on reserve assets. Compliant stablecoin issuers, upon receiving fiat currency, allocate it to highly liquid reserve assets such as cash, bank deposits, short-term government bonds, repurchase agreements, or money market funds, while retaining the income generated by these reserves alongside their 1:1 redemption commitment to holders. Non-compliant stablecoin issuers, such as Tether, disclosed that their full-year net profit in 2025 exceeded $10 billion, with a total exposure to U.S. Treasury securities reaching $141 billion (including $12.2 billion held directly), making them currently the largest non-sovereign holder of U.S. Treasuries globally. [8]

BIS research further reveals the connection between stablecoins and the U.S. short-term Treasury market. The BIS study notes that U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin issuers purchased nearly $40 billion in U.S. T-bills in 2024, a scale comparable to large government money market funds, and found that stablecoin inflows exert a measurable impact on 3-month T-bill yields, demonstrating a discernible downward pressure on short-term U.S. Treasury yields [9]. This means stablecoins are no longer merely products within the Web3 ecosystem but have become linked to traditional safe asset markets through their reserve assets. The larger the scale of stablecoins, the more significant the potential impact of their inflows and outflows on the Treasury market, monetary policy transmission, and financial stability—warranting increased regulatory attention.

Stablecoin payment use case: Extending from exchange settlement to real-world commerce flows

The primary initial use of stablecoins was pricing and settlement in Web3 markets, with users leveraging assets like USDT and USDC to quickly move dollar exposure between exchanges and DeFi protocols. The shift in 2025–2026 is that stablecoin use cases are migrating toward real-world commercial payments. Visa identifies banking opportunities including cross-border remittances, B2C payments, corporate treasury, B2B payments, on-chain credit facilities, and RWA (real-world asset tokenization) [10]. A 2025 Fireblocks survey found that 90% of institutional respondents have already taken action on stablecoins, with 49% of financial institutions already using them in payments, and another 41% in pilot or planning stages [11].

In cross-border B2B scenarios, the value of stablecoins lies not merely in reducing transaction fees, but in shortening settlement chains, enhancing fund visibility, and unlocking pre-funded capital. According to a Fireblocks survey, the top perceived value of adopting stablecoins for institutional respondents is faster settlement (48%), followed by transparency (36%), integrated payment flows (33%), and improved liquidity management (33%), with cost reduction accounting for only 30%. [12] This indicates that businesses and banks prioritize capital turnover efficiency, control, and the ability to enter new markets, rather than simply lower transaction costs.

Global payments and remote payroll are another high-potential use case. The platform economy, creator economy, and cross-border outsourcing require businesses to make payments to individuals and small merchants across multiple countries. Traditional bank accounts and local clearing networks have uneven coverage, while stablecoins enable cross-border transfers pegged to the stable value of the U.S. dollar, with final settlement handled by local licensed institutions in accordance with regional regulations. This use case is especially suited for Latin America, Africa, Southeast Asia, and high-inflation countries, where users are more sensitive to dollar-denominated value storage and instant settlement.

The U card is the most intuitive entry point for consumers. Visa’s partnership with Bridge demonstrates that stablecoins can be “converted” into everyday spending power through existing card networks and merchant acceptance systems. Consumers use cards at the front end, while merchants receive local fiat currency at the back end, with stablecoin balances settled and converted via infrastructure like Bridge. This pathway shows that consumers do not need to understand blockchains, gas fees, or wallets—stablecoins can be embedded as a backend funding source within traditional payment experiences.

Evolution of User Experience Architecture: From On-Chain Assets to Mass Payments

For stablecoins to evolve from Web3-native assets into mass payment tools, they must overcome three experience barriers: first, users must hold native gas tokens to initiate transactions; second, managing private keys and seed phrases is complex and error-prone; third, the proliferation of multiple chains and stablecoins creates fragmentation in cross-chain choices. Between 2025 and 2026, two complementary evolutionary paths have emerged around these barriers—the底层 account abstraction path and the upper-layer payment rail path—jointly bringing the frontend experience of on-chain payments closer to Apple Pay, PayPal, and credit cards.

On the account abstraction pathway, ERC-4337 and EIP-7702 are the main drivers. What is account abstraction? The core idea is to bring the programmability of smart contracts to everyday users, turning users’ wallets themselves into smart contracts to unlock advanced features such as multi-factor authentication, recurring automatic payments, and customizable transaction rules.

Since every blockchain transaction requires users to hold the native token of the corresponding public chain to pay for gas fees, it’s like traveling abroad—you must exchange currency for the local money before you can make any purchases. This presents a significant barrier for average users. To address this, the Ethereum community—including founder Vitalik Buterin—proposed the ERC-4337 standard, which was officially deployed on the Ethereum mainnet in March 2023. ERC-4337 introduces components such as UserOperation, Bundler, EntryPoint, and Paymaster, enabling users to express transaction intent through smart accounts and allowing Paymasters to cover gas fees on their behalf under specific conditions. We will use Visa team’s test diagram as an example to illustrate this in detail below [13].

Transaction flow and new gas fee paradigm under ERC-4337 account abstraction, source: VISA, What is Account Abstraction?

Traditional Ethereum transaction flow: User signs with private key → Transaction enters public mempool → Validator/builder packages it into the blockchain. The process is simple but rigid: users must hold ETH to pay gas fees and cannot customize any logic.

ERC-4337 decouples user transaction intent from underlying blockchain execution by introducing a dedicated mempool for UserOperations, a Bundler packaging market, and a global EntryPoint contract, enabling smart contract wallets to initiate transactions without modifying Ethereum’s consensus protocol; its value lies in shifting the control logic of blockchain accounts from the protocol layer to the application layer, granting developers and users full programmable control over “wallet behavior.” More simply put, ERC-4337 allows smart contract wallets to initiate transactions like regular wallets—without changing Ethereum’s underlying rules—in other words, it puts the power to decide “what a wallet can do” directly into the hands of developers and users.

The optional Paymaster contract further abstracts the way gas fees are paid—it can act as a “currency intermediary,” accepting users’ USDC and automatically converting it to ETH on-chain to cover transaction fees, or the platform can directly sponsor all gas fees, delivering a completely transparent, zero-fee experience for users—both modes aim toward the same goal: eliminating the barrier of holding native tokens and reducing on-chain payment friction to the level of traditional digital payments.

Understanding the main roles in the ERC-4337 standard process, image source: Rosa, created by Web3caff Research

Although account abstraction (ERC-4337) is a key application protocol for blockchain payments to go mainstream, ERC-4337 does not solve a fundamental issue: the vast majority of users still rely on traditional EOA wallets, such as MetaMask; how can they smoothly transition to the smart contract wallet experience?

EIP-7702, proposed by Vitalik Buterin, is designed specifically to address this pain point. In one sentence, EIP-7702 allows a traditional EOA wallet to temporarily or permanently "borrow" the code of a smart contract during the execution of a transaction, transforming into a smart contract wallet.

EIP-7702 introduces a new transaction type (Transaction Type 0x04). When a user initiates this type of transaction, they can include an authorization list within the transaction. This list contains a special "pointer" (an address). Upon execution, the Ethereum network performs the following: it points the code of the user’s EOA account to the smart contract code at that address by writing a delegation indicator of 0xef0100 || address. From that moment on, this previously empty EOA account gains all the capabilities of that smart contract. The significance lies in enabling externally owned accounts (EOAs) to temporarily set account code and acquire smart account functionalities such as batch transactions, paymaster-sponsored transactions, and permission delegation—without requiring address migration or deploying a new wallet [14].

This way, users can immediately enjoy the benefits of the ERC-4337 ecosystem—such as Paymaster gas sponsorship—without needing to switch wallets or transfer assets. In simple terms, if ERC-4337 is like building a modern high-speed rail station (the smart contract wallet ecosystem), then EIP-7702 is like constructing a direct expressway that allows all existing users still riding bicycles (EOA wallets) to drive straight into the station. Through minor protocol-level changes, it unlocks tremendous UX innovation potential at the application layer.

Circle, in its 2025 article on the Pectra upgrade, explains that EIP-7702 combined with Circle Paymaster enables EOAs to pay gas fees in USDC without deploying a smart wallet, lowering the on-chain barrier for users making stablecoin payments [15]. This approach addresses the complexity of gas and signing for self-custody wallet users, offering a significant benefit: it transforms existing hundreds of millions of EOA wallets (such as MetaMask, Ledger, and Trust Wallet) into smart wallet experiences on-site, without requiring users to migrate to new addresses.

On the payment rail, payment and card network providers such as Stripe, PayPal, Visa, Mastercard, and Circle have chosen to abstract on-chain complexity at the custodial level, handling all operations behind the scenes through processors and issuers, so merchants and consumers do not need to understand on-chain concepts. For example, shortly after acquiring the stablecoin infrastructure company Bridge in early 2025, Stripe officially integrated USDC checkout capabilities into its standard merchant checkout flow starting December 2025 [16]; PayPal’s stablecoin PYUSD had expanded to over 70 markets by March 2026, processing approximately $8.2 billion in cross-border stablecoin transactions during the first quarter of 2026 alone [17]; Circle launched CPN Managed Payments, a custodial settlement product for banks; Visa officially launched USDC settlement in the United States in December 2025 and announced on April 29, 2026, that it would add five new blockchains to its global stablecoin pilot program, bringing the annualized volume of stablecoin settlement to $7 billion—a 50% increase from the previous quarter [18]; Mastercard similarly advanced stablecoin card acceptance through partnerships with MetaMask, Circle, and others.

Two pathways converge in product form toward the same goal—allowing users to simply confirm payment amount, recipient, and authorization scope, while pushing Gas, chain selection, settlement, and cross-chain routing entirely to the backend—but they serve different user segments. Account abstraction makes Web3 more intuitive for “Web3-savvy users,” while payment rails enable “non-Web3 users” to use it effortlessly. Together, they form the technical and product foundation for Web3 payments to evolve from “on-chain assets” into “mass-market payment tools” between 2025 and 2026.

The rise of "stable chains": Vertical integration of payment-specific infrastructure

In 2025, a new proprietary term emerged: Stablechain. This term was first introduced by Stable (stable.xyz), a Layer 1 blockchain project supported by Bitfinex with USDT as its native asset. Stable positions itself as the world’s first “Stablechain” and officially launched its mainnet in December 2025.

The rise of stable chains fundamentally stems from the long-term accumulation of a structural mismatch: stablecoins have become the primary value carrier on-chain, yet the infrastructure supporting them was never designed for this purpose. This misalignment creates three unavoidable sources of friction in practice: first, gas payments on general-purpose blockchains are unpredictable in cost. Second, competition for block space forces payment transactions to compete alongside speculative DeFi operations and MEV (maximal extractable value) arbitrage bots for limited capacity, resulting in inconsistent confirmation times and an inherent disadvantage in transaction prioritization. Third, there is a lack of dedicated compliance and privacy modules for payments.

The current development characteristics of stable chains are primarily reflected in: using stablecoins as native gas tokens to eliminate cost volatility; incorporating dedicated payment transaction channels and priority mechanisms; integrating DEX and FX liquidity to enable on-chain native foreign exchange conversion; and providing compliance modules tailored for institutions. This specialization brings not only performance improvements but also a shift in design philosophy: elevating payment predictability, compliance, and user experience from an “option” at the application layer to a “hard constraint” at the protocol layer. For a detailed analysis of the three representative stable chains, see Chapter Six.

[1] World Bank (2025.09), Remittance Prices Worldwide

[2] World Bank (2025), The Global Findex 2025

[3] Liberty Street Economics (2025), The Future of Payment Infrastructure Could Be Permissionless

[4] Cryptonews.net (2026.04), Stablecoins quietly out-settle Visa as Coinbase crowns them the internet’s real money

[5] Bloomberg (2026.01), Stablecoin transactions rose to a record $33 trillion, led by USDC

[6] Spark. Money (2026.06), Stablecoin Payments for Merchants: Costs, Integration, and the 2026 Adoption Wave

[7] Federal Reserve (2026.04), Stablecoins in 2025: Developments and Financial Stability Implications

[8] BLOCKHEAD (2026.02), Tether Reports $10 Billion Profit as Stablecoin Issuer Becomes Top-20 Holder of US Treasuries

[9] BIS Working Papers No 1270 (2025.05, revised 2026.06), Stablecoins and safe asset prices.

[10] Visa, Stablecoins and the future of onchain finance

[11] Fireblocks (2025.05), State of Stablecoins 2025

[12] Fireblocks (2025.05), Stablecoins in Banking: Strategic Insights from the 2025 Survey

[13] Visa (2023.05), What is Account Abstraction?

[14] Ethereum Improvement Proposals, EIP-7702

[15] Circle (2025.05), How the Pectra Upgrade is unlocking gasless USDC transactions with EIP-7702

[16] Wu Shuo Blockchain (Dec 2025), Stripe will launch stablecoin payments for merchants on December 12, 2025.

[17] Stablecoininsider (2026.03), PayPal’s PYUSD Q1 2026 Stablecoin Report

[18] Visa (2026.04), Visa Accelerates Stablecoin Momentum: Adding Five Blockchains for Settlement

[19] Google Cloud Blog (2025.09), Powering AI commerce with the new Agent Payments Protocol (AP2)

[20] Coinbase Developer Platform (2026.06), x402 Protocol Explained: How AI Agents Pay Onchain.

x402.org

[22] Keyrock (206.05), Who Pays the Agent? The Race for Frictionless Machine Payments

[23] AWS Blog (2026.05), Agents that transact: Introducing Amazon Bedrock AgentCore payments, built with Coinbase and Stripe

[24] Fortune (2024. 10), Stripe announces $1.1 billion acquisition of stablecoin start-up Bridge

[25] Privy (2025.06), Privy and Stripe: Bringing crypto to everyone

[26] Stripe (2025.05), Stripe accelerates the utility of AI and stablecoins with major launches

[27] Stripe (2026.05), Stripe partners with AWS to power AgentCore payments with Privy

[28] PayPal (2025.07), PYUSD on Arbitrum

[29] PayPal Newsroom (2025.06), PayPal USD (PYUSD) Plans to Use Stellar for New Use Cases

[30] Visa (2025.04), Visa and Bridge Partner to Make Stablecoins Accessible for Everyday Purchases

[31] Coindesk (2026.04), Visa and Zodia Custody join Stripe’s new blockchain for machine payments

[32] Mastercard (2025.04), Mastercard unveils Agent Pay, pioneering agentic payments technology to power commerce in the age of AI

[33] Mastercard (2026.03), Mastercard to acquire BVNK to connect on-chain payments and fiat rails

[34] Congress.act (2025.07), Genius Act

[35] Federal Register (2026.02), Implementing the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act for the Issuance of Stablecoins by Entities Subject to the Jurisdiction of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency

[36] Sumsub (2026.01), MiCA Regulation and EU Crypto Rules: What Changes in 2026

[37] Eco.com (2026.05), MiCA-Compliant Stablecoins 2026: Full List With Issuers

[38] HKMA (2025.07), Implementation of regulatory regime for stablecoin issuers

[39] Yahoo Finance (2025.12), China’s Digital Yuan to Become Interest-Bearing Under New 2026 Framework

Disclaimer: This report or content (collectively referred to as the report) is prepared by Web3Caff Research. The information contained herein is for reference purposes only and does not constitute any prediction, investment advice, recommendation, or offer. Investors should not rely on such information to buy, sell any securities, cryptocurrencies, or adopt any investment strategy. The terminology used and opinions expressed in this report are intended to aid understanding of industry trends and promote responsible development within the Web3 new economy, including the blockchain industry, and should not be interpreted as explicit legal opinions or positions of Web3Caff Research. The views expressed in this report reflect only the personal opinions of the author as of the stated date and are unrelated to the stance of Web3Caff Research; they may change with subsequent developments. The information and views contained in this report are derived from proprietary and non-proprietary sources that Web3Caff Research considers reliable, but they do not necessarily encompass all data and are not guaranteed for accuracy. Accordingly, Web3Caff Research makes no representations or warranties regarding its accuracy or reliability and assumes no liability for any errors or omissions arising in any other manner (including liability to any person due to negligence). This report may contain “forward-looking” information, which may include predictions and forecasts; however, this document does not constitute a guarantee of any such predictions. Reliance on the information contained in this report is entirely at the reader’s own discretion. This report is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice, recommendations, or offers to buy or sell any securities, cryptocurrencies, or adopt any investment strategy. Please strictly comply with relevant laws and regulations in your country or jurisdiction.