Visa Pairs Cards with Stablecoins in AI-Driven Commerce

Visa recently released a joint report with blockchain analytics firm Artemis on how stablecoins and traditional card networks can work together in AI-driven commerce. The company argues that low-cost blockchain payments will be crucial as software agents begin handling machine-to-machine transactions.

The report, titled Agentic Payments from the Ground Up, suggests that future agentic commerce will combine card networks and stablecoins instead of treating them as competing payment systems. It highlights two distinct payment needs: macro-commerce for consumer-sized purchases and micro-commerce for repeated sub-dollar transactions between software services.

Visa notes that traditional payment rails are well-suited for larger consumer purchases, but fixed processing costs make very small payments uneconomical. However, newer blockchain networks have reduced settlement costs to fractions of a cent, making stablecoins a more efficient option for machine-native micropayments.