[DigitalToday reporter Chi-gyu Hwang] Industry moves aimed at expanding AI agents are gaining pace. Interest in AI agent payments is particularly strong in the global payments market.

Leading companies have rushed into a protocol race that allows payments to be made directly from AI agents without going through a person.

Last year, U.S. cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and cloud and security company Cloudflare introduced the x402 protocol as an open-source project to support AI agent payments. Google also unveiled the Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) in September last year, under which AI agents can shop and make payments on users' behalf. AP2 supports both credit cards and stablecoins.

Payment volumes via x402 are still negligible, but it appears to be drawing significant attention in the tech sector, possibly due to enthusiasm for AI agents. Payment technologies supporting AI agents continue to emerge beyond x402.

On March 18 local time, Stripe, a major B2B payments platform, and Tempo, a layer-1 blockchain jointly developed by Stripe and VC firm Paradigm, introduced the Machine Payment Protocol (MPP).

MPP is also an open-source network and supports both fiat currencies and cryptocurrencies. It is compatible with Stripe's existing AI payment infrastructure. It currently runs only on the Tempo blockchain, but it is designed to expand to various blockchains and payment rails.

Tempo co-founder and Paradigm managing partner Matt Huang (맷 황) said, "Agent payments are still in the early stages and we are finding the best structure." He said, "We wanted to create the simplest and most efficient protocol that anyone can expand without permission."

Visa, one of the two biggest credit card networks, also participated in developing MPP. Visa took charge of the specifications for agents to pay by credit and debit cards. Visa's head of crypto, Cuy Sheffield (쿠이 쉐필드), explained, "MPP is a protocol that clearly defines how agents communicate with merchants."

Visa also unveiled a Visa command-line interface (CLI) for agents.

Visa said the tool supports developers in executing payments directly within a coding environment. It also said it enables card payments within programs without API keys, allowing payments to be made in AI bots, scripts and automated workflows.

Credit card networks already have a global merchant ecosystem. Visa's move has the advantage of enabling purchases to be automated without changing existing business workflows. Card-based methods may still be efficient, particularly for large or occasional transactions.

The cryptocurrency industry is also moving actively.

The Information reported on March 18 local time that Coinbase, the largest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange that led the creation of x402, has made AI agent payments one of the company's top priorities.

It appears to be seeking to expand revenue by providing infrastructure used by agents. Its strategy is to earn revenue by enabling payments between agents through the USDC stablecoin and its Base blockchain.

Coinbase is also competing with crypto infrastructure startup Zero Hash and Cloudflare for the right to issue a stablecoin that Cloudflare plans to launch this year for use in AI agent payments.

The Information reported that Cloudflare plays a significant role in web traffic management and cybersecurity, and that if it wins the contract it could take the lead in the market for AI agent-based traffic payments. Cloudflare Chief Strategy Officer Stephanie Cohen (스테파니 코언) said, "The share of agents and bots in internet traffic is steadily increasing," and added, "A new payment function will be needed for the internet."