Crypto Industry: Payment

Payment processors are increasingly embracing crypto as digital assets move from speculation to real-world utility. Companies are now processing a growing volume of crypto-based payments, reflecting broader acceptance of blockchain rails for settlement and value transfer. As stablecoins and on-chain payments mature, traditional payment providers are integrating crypto to offer faster, more global, and more efficient payment infrastructure for businesses and consumers alike.

Stripe

Stripe has become a significant player in both traditional and crypto-linked payments. In 2024 Stripe processed roughly $1.4 trillion in total payment volume, serving millions of merchants across more than 50 countries.

On the crypto side, Stripe now supports stablecoin payments, including USDC on networks such as Ethereum, Polygon, and Base, allowing customers to pay with crypto wallets while Stripe settles the funds into merchants’ Stripe balances in U.S. dollars. The company has also expanded its stablecoin capabilities to include recurring subscription billing in USDC.

In 2025 alone, Stripe’s stablecoin transactions have grown rapidly, surpassing $100 million in USDC transfers across multiple blockchains as adoption of digital-asset payments grows.

x402

A new HTTP standard, developed by Coinbase, is an open protocol designed to make payments native to the internet by embedding stablecoin settlement directly into HTTP using the long-reserved 402 Payment Required status code.

This matters for AI because autonomous agents need money that moves as fast as software, with predictable unit-of-account pricing, near-instant settlement, and minimal overhead, which is exactly what stablecoins like USDC provide.

As AI agents increasingly pay for APIs, data, compute, and digital services on demand, x402 is positioned to expand as a standard for machine-to-machine commerce, enabling pay-per-request business models without accounts, subscriptions, or manual checkout

x402 represents the flourishing industry of agentic payments. Data from Dune Analytics visualizes adoption.

Closing Thoughts:

Stablecoins are becoming deeply embedded into the global financial system, extending well beyond their original use cases in trading and settlement. For humans, they now function as digital dollars that move instantly, operate 24/7, and integrate seamlessly with banks, payment processors, and on-chain financial products. At the same time, stablecoins are emerging as the native currency for AI-driven systems, where autonomous software agents need a reliable, programmable, and dollar-denominated medium of exchange to pay for data, compute, APIs, and services in real time.