According to Fortune, on June 10, Mastercard launched Agent Pay for AI, a new protocol designed to enable artificial intelligence agents to execute micropayments and transactions with each other. The protocol stores permission data on Polygon, a blockchain network built on Ethereum.
The protocol addresses a gap in existing payment infrastructure for small, automated machine-to-machine transactions that AI agents need to perform. Three companies are partnering with Mastercard to develop the protocol: fintech platform Adyen, crypto exchange Coinbase, and web infrastructure provider Cloudflare.