What stablecoins are used for

Agentic commerce: what it means for businesses that sell services

Agentic commerce is the pattern where AI agents — acting on behalf of a human buyer — research, select, and complete purchases without step-by-step human approval. For businesses that sell services or data, this creates a new class of buyer: software that pays programmatically, expects machine-readable pricing and catalogs, and has no patience for checkout flows designed for humans. Businesses that expose agent-accessible APIs and accept stablecoin payments via protocols like x402 or MPP can capture this buyer class; those that don't will be bypassed.

The infrastructure behind agentic payments: wallets, keys, and settlement

Agentic payments require three infrastructure layers working together: a wallet the agent can sign transactions from, a key custody model that protects that wallet without requiring human interaction, and a settlement chain that confirms payments in under a second for fractions of a cent. Without all three, autonomous machine-to-machine payments at scale are not viable. This article explains each layer and the design choices operators face when deploying AI agents that spend money.

How AI agents use stablecoins to pay for APIs and services

AI agents pay for APIs and services by holding funded stablecoin wallets and executing payments inline with HTTP requests — no human approval at each step, no merchant account required. Two open protocols, Coinbase's x402 and Tempo's Machine Payments Protocol (MPP), define the handshake. The agent sends a request, receives a price challenge, signs a stablecoin payment, and retries — the whole exchange fits inside a single HTTP cycle.

B2B stablecoin payments: the complete business guide

Stablecoin rails let businesses settle supplier invoices, fund marketplace payouts, and automate AR/AP in seconds at a fraction of wire costs — with the compliance and accounting framework now mature enough for enterprise adoption.

DeFi lending explained: how to earn and borrow against stablecoins

DeFi lending lets you deposit stablecoins into a smart-contract pool and earn interest paid by borrowers — without a bank in the middle. Borrowers must post over-collateralised crypto, which gets liquidated automatically if values fall. Aave, Compound, and Morpho collectively held over $30 billion in deposits by mid-2026. The yield is real, but so are the risks: smart-contract exploits, liquidation cascades, and rate volatility mean DeFi lending is not equivalent to a savings account.

How to earn interest on USDC and USDT

You can earn interest on USDC and USDT by supplying them to a DeFi lending protocol, depositing at a centralised lending platform, or using an issuer reward program. Major DeFi protocols pay roughly 3.5–7% APY in June 2026; centralised platforms quote 6.5–12%; issuer programs vary. Each route carries a distinct risk profile.

The Machine Payments Protocol (MPP), explained

The Machine Payments Protocol (MPP) is an open standard, co-authored by Stripe and Tempo, that lets AI agents and software pay for services inline with an HTTP request. Its sessions mechanism collapses any number of micropayments into exactly two on-chain transactions — an open and a settle — making high-frequency machine payments economically viable.

How to pay international contractors with stablecoins

Paying international contractors in stablecoins settles in seconds for a fraction of a cent, sidesteps SWIFT delays and FX markups, and works in countries where banking access is thin. Here is how to do it compliantly, from classification to payout.

What is programmable money? Stablecoins as internet-native dollars

Programmable money is a unit of value whose movement is governed by code — smart contracts that release funds when predefined conditions are met, without manual authorization from a bank or person. Stablecoins are the practical implementation of programmable money today: dollar-pegged tokens on blockchains that combine the stability of a dollar with the programmability of software. USDC stood at $77.3 billion and USDT at $189.5 billion in late April 2026, with total stablecoin supply at $318 billion.

Real-world asset tokenization, explained

Real-world asset (RWA) tokenization converts claims on off-chain assets — Treasury bills, private credit, real estate, commodities — into tokens on a public blockchain. The total on-chain tokenized RWA market (excluding stablecoins) reached roughly $24–31 billion by early-to-mid 2026, up from $6 billion at the start of 2025. US Treasuries and private credit dominate. The core argument for tokenization is operational: on-chain settlement, 24/7 transferability, and fractional ownership change the economics of asset distribution and collateral management. The risks are legal complexity, smart-contract exposure, and regulatory uncertainty that varies sharply by asset class and jurisdiction.

Stablecoin payments for e-commerce: Shopify, Stripe, and beyond

Stablecoin acceptance has moved from crypto-native niche to mainstream e-commerce infrastructure. Shopify launched USDC payments on Base in June 2025 through a partnership with Stripe and Coinbase, letting merchants accept USDC at checkout and settle in local currency or hold stablecoins directly. Stripe expanded stablecoin acceptance to 70+ countries by Q1 2026. Both integrations settle in seconds, charge no foreign transaction fees, and do not require merchants to manage crypto wallets if they prefer fiat payouts.

Stablecoin invoice and payment automation, explained

Stablecoin payment automation replaces manual invoice-to-settlement workflows with programmable rules: send USDC when an invoice is approved, release escrowed funds when a milestone is verified, sweep excess balance to yield overnight. Settlement clears in seconds on the chosen chain for less than a dollar in network fees — compared with one to three business days for SWIFT and ACH. This article explains how stablecoin invoice automation works, which components are required, and how to implement a basic automated payment flow.

Stablecoin payroll: a guide for employers

Paying employees or contractors in stablecoins is legal, tax-compliant, and operationally straightforward — if you handle worker classification, KYC, withholding, and batch workflow correctly. This guide covers each step.

Stablecoin savings in emerging markets: is it safe?

In countries with high inflation and weak local currencies, dollar-pegged stablecoins have become a practical savings tool for millions of people who cannot easily access US bank accounts. Argentina processed $34 billion in stablecoin transactions in 2024; Nigerian USDC volume exceeded $3 billion per month by 2025. Whether it is safe depends on which stablecoin, which custodian, and which jurisdiction — there is no single answer. The risks are real and specific: custodian failures, depeg events, regulatory crackdowns, and the permanent loss of self-custody keys.

Stablecoin treasury management: a CFO's guide

CFOs are using stablecoins to solve two distinct treasury problems: operational friction in cross-border payments, and idle-balance yield on dollar reserves. This guide covers the risk framework, accounting treatment, and implementation sequence for each.

The real risks of earning yield on stablecoins

Earning yield on stablecoins is not equivalent to a savings account. The yield comes from somewhere — borrower interest in DeFi, T-bill returns in tokenized funds, or opaque mechanisms in higher-yield products — and each source carries specific risks. Smart-contract exploits drained over $2.47 billion from DeFi in the first half of 2025 alone. The GENIUS Act explicitly excludes yield-bearing tokens from the US payment stablecoin category. This article maps the risks by category so you can match the risk you are taking to the return you are receiving.

Stablecoin yield vs a high-yield savings account: which pays more?

As of June 2026, top high-yield savings accounts pay 3.8–4.1% APY, with outliers reaching 5%. On-chain stablecoin lending on major DeFi protocols pays roughly 3.5–7% APY, with centralized platforms quoting higher figures that carry correspondingly higher risk. The gap is narrower than the headlines suggest — and the risks are fundamentally different.

Tokenized money market funds: BUIDL, USYC, and what they mean for you

Tokenized money market funds put the shares of a regulated, Treasury-backed fund onto a blockchain, so the yield follows the token. BlackRock's BUIDL, Circle's USYC, and Franklin Templeton's BENJI together held roughly $7 billion of the $14.7 billion tokenized-Treasury market as of June 2026 (source: rwa.xyz). They pay yields near the risk-free rate — around 3.4–3.6% APY as of June 2026 — and are legally distinct from payment stablecoins. Access is the binding constraint: most products require institutional onboarding, minimum investments in the millions, or geographic restrictions on US retail investors.

Tokenized treasuries compared: BUIDL, USYC, USDY, BENJI

Four products dominate the $14.7 billion tokenized US Treasury market as of June 2026: BlackRock's BUIDL ($2.39B AUM, 3.40% APY), Circle's USYC ($2.83B AUM, 3.18% APY), Ondo's USDY ($2.14B AUM, 3.55% APY), and Franklin Templeton's BENJI ($836.9M AUM, 3.48% APY) — all sourced from rwa.xyz. They differ on legal structure, minimum investment, chain availability, redemption mechanics, and who can access them. This comparison maps those differences so you can evaluate which product, if any, fits your situation.

What are agentic payments? How AI agents pay with stablecoins

Agentic payments are autonomous financial transactions made by AI agents — software that acts on a user's behalf — without human approval at each step. Stablecoins provide the programmable, instant-settling dollar that makes this possible. Two protocols, Coinbase's x402 and Tempo's MPP, are defining how it works.

What business wire transfers really cost — and the stablecoin alternative

A business wire transfer carries a fixed fee of $25–$50, an FX markup of 1.5–3%, and a settlement delay of 2–5 days. A stablecoin transfer on a modern payment rail costs under $0.01, settles in seconds, and carries no markup. Here is the math.

x402 vs MPP: the two protocols defining machine payments

x402 (Coinbase) and MPP (Stripe + Tempo) both revive the HTTP 402 status code to let AI agents and software pay for services inline with an HTTP request. They differ in architecture, settlement model, and chain home: x402 settles each request independently on Base or Solana; MPP adds a sessions layer that collapses thousands of micropayments into two on-chain transactions.

What are yield-bearing stablecoins? USDY, USYC, BUIDL explained

Yield-bearing stablecoins are tokens that pass Treasury or money-market returns directly to the holder — unlike USDC or USDT, which keep that yield for the issuer. USDY (Ondo), USYC (Circle/Hashnote), and BUIDL (BlackRock) are the leading examples. The category held roughly $15 billion in assets as of May 2026 and is growing fast, but access restrictions and smart-contract risk mean they are not drop-in replacements for USDC.