[DigitalToday reporter Hyunwoo Choo] Stablecoin issuer Circle said on Feb. 17 (local time) it successfully completed a test with OpenMind in which a robot made payments directly in USDC.

According to a report by blockchain outlet CoinPost, the robot "Bits" demonstrated paying a charging-station fee without human involvement and completing charging on its own. It means machine-to-machine micropayments have been realised.

OpenMind, a company developing robot software and network technology, worked with Circle to address the problem of autonomous robots not being linked to payment systems. By integrating an autonomous payment system based on USDC, it laid the groundwork for robots to conduct economic activity without human help. The two companies announced a strategic partnership in December to develop a micropayment standard to apply across AI agents and digital infrastructure.

Circle is introducing the "x402" protocol, which combines payment processing with HTTP requests, to help AI agents automate purchases of energy, services and data. x402 is an open payment protocol led by Coinbase and is designed to allow AI agents to make payments autonomously. Coinbase announced "Agentic Wallet", a wallet infrastructure for AI agents that integrates the protocol, on Feb. 11, and its adoption is spreading quickly, including by Stripe.

Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire (제레미 알레어) said, "Within 5 years, billions of AI agents will need payment systems," adding that "stablecoins are the only practical option." He said AI needs an instant cross-border payment system to act autonomously, and stablecoins make that possible.

Development of AI agents is also accelerating in the Ethereum ecosystem. With the introduction of the ERC-8004 standard, it has increased reliability between AI agents, and more than 7,500 AI agents have been registered. The Ethereum network is positioning itself at the centre of the AI economy through the x402 payment standard and ERC-8004.