Ripple Is Part of Mastercard's Agent Pay Movement

@Mastercard has officially launched Agent Pay for Machines (AP4M), a new payments service designed to let artificial intelligence agents transact with one another autonomously, at machine speed and without human intervention.

The announcement, made on June 10, marks a significant step in the payments giant's push to build financial infrastructure for what it calls the "machine economy," where AI systems buy and sell services continuously in the background.

What AP4M Does

Operating at machine speed, AI agents could transact with each other continuously at high velocity, executing chains of transactions, including microtransactions. AP4M supports high-frequency, low-latency and micropayments, as well as multiple payment methods including cards and stablecoins.

The program is built around three pillars: credentialing (proving the AI agent is authorized to spend), transaction controls (setting guardrails on what it can buy and how much), and guaranteed settlement (making sure the money actually moves).

"AI payments enable ultra-fast, micropayment transactions at a scale unlike anything today," said Jorn Lambert, Mastercard's chief product officer. "AP4M will help drive explosive growth in AI business models."

Ripple, Coinbase, and 30-Plus Partners Join the Network

The partner list includes Aave Labs, @Coinbase, OKX, Polygon, @Ripple (RippleX), and the @Solana Foundation, among the initial backers. Over 30 partners have signed on in total, blending blockchain-native companies with traditional financial players.

The integration is particularly notable for Ripple. Mastercard will support settlement using regulated stablecoins including Circle's $USDC, Paxos-issued stablecoins, and Ripple's $RLUSD. These stablecoins will be enabled across a range of supported blockchain networks including Arbitrum, Base, Canton, Ethereum, Polygon, Solana, Tempo, and XRPL.

Ripple's relationship with Mastercard has been building for some time. Last fall, Mastercard teamed up with Ripple and Gemini to explore the settlement of transactions on the XRP Ledger using RLUSD. RLUSD is a U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin issued under the New York Department of Financial Services Trust Company Charter and fully backed by cash and cash-equivalent reserves. Since launching in late 2024, RLUSD has grown to over $1 billion in circulation.

Jack McDonald, Ripple's senior vice president of stablecoins, said Mastercard's move into on-chain settlement is "a landmark validation that blockchain technology is ready for the world's most critical payment infrastructure," adding that RLUSD's inclusion "reflects growing demand for trusted, regulated stablecoins built for real-world financial use cases on public blockchains like the XRP Ledger."

AP4M builds on the original Agent Pay program that Mastercard introduced in April 2025. That earlier version laid the groundwork for AI-assisted payments. This iteration extends the concept into fully autonomous machine-to-machine territory, where speed and volume are the defining characteristics.

Mastercard official press release: Agent Pay for Machines launch | Mastercard: Stablecoin settlement expansion announcement | Ripple official press release: Mastercard, WebBank and Gemini collaboration