<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Mastercard has unveiled a new payments infrastructure designed specifically for AI agents, with over 30 fintech, legacy finance and crypto firms like Coinbase, OKX and Tempo joining as early adopters. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The new system, called Agent Pay for Machines (AP4M), will support super-fast, “always-on” transactions between AI agents and machines, including microtransactions, according to the </span><a href="https://www.mastercard.com/us/en/news-and-trends/press/2026/june/mastercard-launches-agent-pay-for-machines.html"><span style="font-weight: 400;">announcement</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> on Wednesday. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"AI agents are no longer just assisting decisions.
They are able to act on human intent, coordinate services and complete transactions that are bespoke for their users," Mastercard wrote, noting that autonomous agents can execute high-volume, low-value payments "at machine speed."</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The move comes as more and more financial giants build infrastructure designed for AI agents, including open payments protocols like </span><a href="https://www.theblock.co/post/398123/coinbase-incubated-x402-protocol-unveils-app-store-for-ai-bots"><span style="font-weight: 400;">x402</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, incubated by Coinbase, and the </span><a href="https://www.theblock.co/post/394131/tempo-mainnet-goes-live-with-machine-payments-protocol-for-agents"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Machine Payments Protocol</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> (MPP), built by Tempo.
