Visa predicts cards and stablecoins will coexist for AI payments

Payments giant Visa predicts that traditional card payments and stablecoins will coexist to serve a growing market for transactions conducted by AI agents, according to a joint report with on-chain platform Artemis. The report distinguishes between two types of AI-driven commerce: macro-commerce, where agents perform tasks delegated by humans, and micro-commerce, which involves transactions like API calls and computing resource purchases between agents. For micro-commerce, where most transactions are under $1, the report argues that stablecoins are more suitable due to the economic inefficiency of existing card fee structures. It concludes that while cards will remain dominant for general consumer payments, stablecoins will handle the high volume of micro-payments between AI agents. However, the report identified the need to establish a clear regulatory framework as a remaining challenge.