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Visa partners with AI and stablecoin firms to build payments infrastructure for autonomous agents and digital assets, diversifying revenue beyond traditional card fees.

Top Companies AI — US (1/2)7h ago5 min read
Visa partners with AI and stablecoin firms to build payments infrastructure for autonomous agents and digital assets, diversifying revenue beyond traditional card fees.

Key takeaway

Visa is partnering with AI and stablecoin payment technology firms to enable a new category of commerce where autonomous AI agents can transact on behalf of humans. These partnerships address Visa's need to diversify revenue streams beyond traditional card processing fees, which are under threat from regulation and fintech challengers. Both Visa and Mastercard reported more than 20% year-over-year growth in these value-added services in their most recent quarter.

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3 Key Points

  • What happened

    Visa announced partnerships with AI developer Alchemy and cross-border payments platform Nuvion, and a stablecoin wallet collaboration with Opera's MiniPay. Alchemy's AgentCard—which enables AI agents to make online purchases on behalf of humans without a checkout screen—recorded 78,000 sign-ups in its first 48 hours.

  • Why it matters

    Visa is building what it calls 'value-added services' to reduce reliance on point-of-sale card fees, which face pressure from regulation and fintech competition. Investors view these partnerships as a 'tailwind' supporting long-term revenue growth, as both Visa and Mastercard reported more than 20% year-over-year value-added services growth in their most recent quarter.

  • What to watch

    The technology is moving from experimentation to real-world uses, according to Visa's global head of growth products and partnerships. Visa's Trusted Agent Protocol framework partners include Adyen, Ant, Checkout.com, Coinbase, Shopify, Stripe, and Worldpay, positioning agentic commerce as a complementary infrastructure layer for long-term market expansion.

FAQ

How does Alchemy's AgentCard work?
AgentCard allows an AI agent built on models from OpenAI, Anthropic, or other models to create an identity and make online purchases on behalf of a human consumer—such as booking a vacation, ordering food, or renewing subscriptions—without requiring the person to interact with a checkout screen. The card includes a Visa payment token, distinct email address, phone number, and a crypto wallet.
What is Visa's Trusted Agent Protocol?
It is a framework designed to recognize trusted AI agents, distinguish them from rogue agents, and guide communication. Partners for the protocol include Adyen, Ant, Checkout.com, Coinbase, Elavon, CyberSource, Fiserv, Microsoft, Nuvei, Shopify, Stripe, and Worldpay.
What does the MiniPay partnership enable?
Visa partnered with Norwegian fintech Opera's stablecoin wallet MiniPay to launch a card that allows users to spend stablecoin balances at more than 175 million merchants.

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