payments

Despite the stablecoin circulating supply experiencing almost no growth in the first 9 months before 2026, its payment usage is accelerating. During the same period, stablecoin payments reached $482 billion, a year-on-year increase of 45%; the number of transactions rose to over 1 billion, a year-on-year increase of 71%. On-chain stablecoin card spending reached $3.9 billion, ten times that of the same period last year, with transactions under $50 accounting for 84% of the increase in card transactions.Mastercard, Stripe, and Visa launched services this week to integrate stablecoins into existing payment systems. In the first three quarters, out of $97.9 trillion in original transfers, only 2.5%, or $2.4 trillion, belonged to end-user activities, with $482 billion being the payment amount under this metric; stablecoin card spending in the second quarter accounted for only 0.03% of Visa's $4 trillion payment volume during the same period.

Latvia may allow residents to pay personal taxes with cryptocurrency by 2027, aiming to attract crypto businesses and investors. Prime Minister's strategic planning and new economy advisor Didzis Dejus told CoinDesk at the UN:BLOCK Fintech conference in Riga that he believes this arrangement will be realized next year. The country's Ministry of Finance has agreed to the plan, which still needs to complete technical integration with payment service providers.The plan builds on a proposal announced in May 2025, when Latvia proposed accepting cryptocurrency for tax payments and promoting the tokenization of assets such as real estate. Dejus stated that Latvia is not afraid to be the fastest-moving country and hopes to attract more crypto businesses beyond licensing. He did not disclose specific payment service providers or specify which cryptocurrencies could be used for tax payments.Meanwhile, the Latvian parliament passed legislation on October 15, changing the taxation of withdrawals from crypto investment accounts to apply to amounts exceeding the deposited amount, rather than taxing each transaction. The law introduces a one-time reporting mechanism, allowing holders to settle past tax obligations by declaring 10% of the asset's market value by the end of 2026, with the reporting period from April 1 to May 31, 2027, and taxes due by July 23. Dejus stated that this measure will help those who purchased cryptocurrencies years ago but lack cost records. The timing of the tax payment plan may depend on the next government, as the United List led by Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs won the parliamentary elections on October 3 and is expected to be nominated again, but still needs coalition partners.

According to CryptoSlate, Microsoft and the cybersecurity organization Health-ISAC have obtained a court order in the United States to seize and redirect the domains supporting three services: YAM Store, CoGUI, and Iron Man. These three services sell stolen accounts and phishing tools to fraudsters. Since January of this year, they have assisted in sending over 1 billion phishing messages, targeting more than 75,000 institutions across over 150 countries, generating tens of millions of dollars in revenue for the operators.Microsoft has disabled over 20,000 accounts associated with YAM Store and continues to block more than 100,000 counterfeit and fraudulent domains. According to Microsoft's investigation, these services accept payments in USDT (Tron network) and ETH, and Cloudflare stated that buyers can also use USDC for payments. Blockchain analytics company TRM Labs assisted investigators in locating and freezing related assets, but the amount frozen has not been disclosed.

The blockchain data platform Allium released the "State of Stablecoins and Payments" third-quarter report on October 15, with data up to September 30. As of September, stablecoin payments grew by 45% to $482 billion, while the supply increased only by 0.4% during the same period; the number of transactions rose by 71% to 1.04 billion, and the average transaction amount decreased from $544 to $462. The payment amount in the third quarter increased by 51% year-on-year, reaching a monthly high of $72 billion in September.At the end of September, the stablecoin supply was $305 billion, up 0.4% from the beginning of the year. Supply growth is no longer driven by major issuers in 2025; Tether, Circle, and Ethena saw a decline in supply this year, while other issuers net increased by $6.9 billion, with the number of issuers holding over $1 billion rising from 11 to 15. Open USD reached $799 million two weeks after its launch on September 30, while brand stablecoins supported by USDC and PYUSD reached $872 million.Allium reported that the adjusted transaction volume from January to September increased by 48% to $24 trillion, with payments accounting for about one-fifth; approximately 2.5% of the $97.9 trillion in original stablecoin transfers was included in the adjusted transaction volume. In terms of payment value, Tron accounted for about two-thirds, with USDT making up 84%. The number of proxy payment transactions in the third quarter doubled to 68.3 million, with the amount decreasing to $3.7 million, while stablecoin card spending grew tenfold to $3.9 billion.

During a live AMA interview hosted by CoinMarketCap, Gate founder and CEO Dr. Han discussed the development direction of digital finance, the product positioning of Gate Money, and the accelerated integration of digital assets with traditional finance.Dr. Han stated, "The future of digital finance lies not only in providing more asset choices but also in connecting assets, funds, and payments, allowing users to manage assets, transfer funds, and meet daily payment needs more conveniently within one ecosystem." Upholding the core concept of "One Gate, Everything Money," Gate Money integrates services such as digital assets, fiat currency, stocks, ETFs, gold, bank accounts, payments, and asset management into a single account, covering scenarios like asset holding, receiving payments, transferring, exchanging, paying, and earning. Users in eligible regions can also open an e-banking account with the same name and use the Gate Card for online and offline consumption with fiat or digital assets, further bridging asset allocation and daily payment scenarios.Regarding the accelerated integration of digital assets and traditional finance, Dr. Han also explored the roles of stablecoins and asset tokenization in cross-border capital flow, on-chain settlement, and financial service innovation. As user demands extend from single transactions to investment management, fund transfers, and daily consumption scenarios, Gate will continue to expand the asset categories, payment methods, and service capabilities of Gate Money, enriching the application of digital assets in diverse financial scenarios and providing users with a more integrated financial service experience.

According to a recent report by AlphaWire, Edwin Cheung, Executive Director of Gate, stated in an interview during TOKEN2049 Singapore that the payment business will become an important growth direction for Gate, serving individuals and corporate users with daily fund transfer needs.On October 7, Gate officially launched Gate Money, allowing users to open a global electronic bank account in their own name through the Gate App, and as services gradually open, it will accept payments in over 60 local currencies, connecting digital assets with everyday financial scenarios. Edwin Cheung pointed out that stablecoins can reduce the number of intermediary banks in cross-border transfers and enhance the transparency of fund flows. In the future, it will coexist long-term with traditional bank transfers, instant payments, and QR code payments, and will play a greater role in cross-currency payments as services develop in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Gate Money integrates functions of fiat currency, digital assets, stocks, ETFs, and gold, providing integrated financial services.Regarding institutional business and security, he mentioned that institutional investors remain highly concerned about liquidity and counterparty risk. Gate offers an OES over-the-counter settlement solution, allowing institutional clients' assets to be retained in third-party custodians while still utilizing Gate's liquidity and trading services, and enhancing transparency with reserve proof. He emphasized that user trust is crucial, and Gate's compliance qualifications, risk control system, and cooperation with various market regulatory agencies are key to the sustainable development of the business.

According to CoinDesk, based on the report "Inside North America's $3 trillion crypto economy: Agentic commerce accelerates" released by Chainalysis, AI agents have completed over 138 million transactions through the x402 payment protocol incubated on the Base blockchain via Coinbase, using cryptocurrency to purchase data, computing power, and access to AI models.The report indicates that in geographically identifiable AI model inference payments, wallets associated with the United States account for 88.1%, while wallets associated with China only account for 0.1%. Eric Jardine, the research director at Chainalysis, stated that one possible explanation is that Chinese developers are more inclined to use open-weight models like DeepSeek and Qwen, thereby reducing the demand for pay-per-use inference services.Chinese-associated wallets exhibit different activity patterns, accounting for about 90% of geographically identifiable payments for security and code analysis services, with most of the flow directed towards the AI smart contract auditing platform AgentLisa.Jardine also cautioned that this gap should not be interpreted as open-source AI weakening the on-chain inference market in Asia. Currently, payment giants such as Visa, Mastercard, and Stripe have supported the x402 protocol, and Coinbase has also begun allowing enterprise clients to accept AI agent payments.

According to The Block, brokerage service provider DriveWealth has partnered with Ripple to integrate its stablecoin settlement, cross-border payment, and digital asset custody services into its brokerage platform.The two parties will initially launch settlement operations in Europe and plan to expand the service scope to the United States. This integration will utilize the Ripple RLUSD stablecoin on the XRP Ledger, allowing DriveWealth customers to use a stablecoin that can be converted to fiat currency almost in real-time for collateral account funding and management. Additionally, both parties are exploring opportunities for equity financing through Ripple Prime.

Ripple announced the integration of the wallet technology from Privy, a subsidiary of Stripe, into the XRP Ledger, allowing financial applications and AI agents to create accounts, hold cryptocurrency assets, and complete payments without users needing to manage wallet software themselves. Developers can create wallets within their own products and authorize transfers involving XRP, the US dollar stablecoin RLUSD issued by Ripple, and other network assets. Privy is responsible for the wallet infrastructure, reducing the workload for application developers while supporting the export of private keys or mnemonic phrases for wallet migration to other platforms.This integration also allows AI agents or automated bots to hold funds and automatically pay for online data and service fees. Privy documentation states that wallets running on enterprise servers can allow software to hold and spend funds, including purchasing data access services through the x402 payment standard. J. Ayo Akinyele, head of engineering at RippleX, stated that the network has processed over 13 million agent payments via x402, accounting for about 25% of ledger activity. Data from the XRPL AI Hub operated by payment infrastructure developer t54 shows that as of Wednesday, cumulative transactions exceeded 14.3 million, covering 169 registered merchants.However, the cumulative transfer amount is much smaller than the scale suggested by the number of transactions, with the dashboard recording cumulative payments of approximately 6,991 XRP and 12,752 RLUSD, most transaction amounts being very small. Ripple began providing related tools to developers in June and expanded support for payment standards developed by Stripe and payment blockchain Tempo in September.

The stablecoin infrastructure platform Interlace announced a joint initiative with multiple industry partners, including OSL, AllScale, Stable, Hetu, Cregis, WIDTH, KEM, and KTX, to launch the white paper titled Stablecoin Payment Infrastructure: From On-Chain Settlement to Real-World Payments. As stablecoins evolve from crypto-native financial instruments into global financial infrastructure, stablecoin payment activity is also growing rapidly. In Q1 2026, stablecoin transaction volume exceeded $28 trillion, while stablecoin B2B payments reached $226 billion in 2025, representing a 733% year-over-year increase. However, as stablecoin payments expand into real-world commercial use cases, the industry still lacks a systematic framework for defining the capabilities covered by stablecoin payment infrastructure and how on-chain assets can be connected with real-world commerce. The white paper will focus on this gap, covering key topics such as stablecoin payment infrastructure, end-to-end costs, compliance and risk management, and enterprise-scale adoption. Drawing on industry data, practical experience, and real-world cases, it will further explore the development path of stablecoin payment infrastructure. The full white paper is expected to be officially released within the next 1-2 months.

According to The Block, KB Kookmin Card has signed a memorandum of understanding with Japan's SBI Holdings to test AI agent-based identity verification and explore cross-border cryptocurrency payments.The two parties will study ways for Japanese tourists to pay Korean merchants using cryptocurrency assets, including stablecoins. KB Kookmin Card is a credit card company under KB Financial Group, and SBI Holdings is a Japanese financial holding group.

Hedera, a public blockchain, has launched Agent Accounts, described as programmable, non-custodial spending accounts that allow AI agents to autonomously transact within rules set by users and enforced on-chain. This includes payment APIs, data retrieval, invoice settlement, and purchasing on behalf of users, with private keys remaining in the user's wallet.Agent Accounts are funded from the user's existing Hedera wallet and are created separately for designated agents, rather than handing over the entire account to the agent. Users connect their wallets through a web application, designate agents, and configure total spending limits, daily caps, single transaction limits, and whitelists for merchants and payees. The rules are written into Hedera smart contracts and are not stored on company servers, making them unmodifiable by anyone other than the user. Funds do not leave the user's account before a purchase occurs; agents do not hold balances but send spending requests to the smart contract, which validates and executes them. Users can pause or revoke agent spending with a single click from their wallet.This feature is supported by Agentic Payment Services, including MCP server, REST API, and relayer. Hedera states that any agent capable of using MCP or REST can connect, with payments available in HBAR, USDC, or other Hedera tokens, and compatible with x402. Each strategy, transaction, and agent action is recorded on the Hedera Consensus Service. The timeline aims for a limited partner testnet launch in Q4 2026, a public testnet in Q1 2027, and a target mainnet launch in Q2 2027, depending on security audits and legal agreements.

HSBC and Ant Group tested a system that allows AI agents to access digital services and complete small payments using tokenized bank deposits, with transactions settled in real-time on a blockchain test network. This test combined HSBC's tokenized deposit service, Ant Group's Anvita Flow network, and the layer two blockchain testing environment Jovay Testnet. HSBC provided settlement capabilities and real-time risk checks, while Ant Group's network coordinated service access and payments. In the demonstration, an AI agent selected a digital service and completed the payment, with both parties referring to such transactions as small payments, typically defined as being under $2. Both companies stated that this test was limited to technical validation and does not represent a commercial release or actual services for customers.Currently, several banks are testing AI agents to initiate financial transactions on behalf of clients. In March, Spain's Santander Bank completed AI agent-initiated payments in a controlled test using Mastercard's Agent Pay infrastructure, involving the bank's real-time payment system. In May, Swiss digital asset bank Sygnum tested AI agent-driven transactions on the main blockchain network, requiring client approval and signature for each transaction. Spain's CaixaBank also completed AI agent-initiated card transactions using Visa Intelligent Commerce with existing merchant payment systems. However, Augustus Bank CEO Ferdinand Dabitz believes that traditional clearing banks rely on systems designed for manual operations decades ago, making it difficult to adapt to the demands of automated, round-the-clock transactions.

According to the WeChat public account "Du Jia," ByteDance's AI assistant Doubao has added a utility payment feature. Users can initiate payment instructions for water, electricity, gas, and other services through voice or text in the Doubao app, with other life service scenarios also in development. Sources close to Doubao told "Du Jia" that Doubao is gradually building capabilities for handling tasks in life scenarios, including travel services and utility payments."Du Jia" claims to have tested that after issuing commands for paying electricity and water bills in the dialogue box, corresponding service cards pop up and redirect to the utility payment page. The interface is divided into electricity, water, and gas fees, with some regions showing that services are not yet available, while some cities have fully or partially opened them. The relevant framework has been established, and city coverage and service provider integration are still in progress, with actual payments requiring further permission to be granted.Currently, the dialogue only serves to invoke services; steps such as binding account numbers, confirmation, and payment will still be retained, and users will not be charged directly with a single command. Alibaba's Tongyi Qianwen integrated utility payments earlier and can complete payments within the dialogue; Doubao at this stage redirects to handle tasks after invoking the card, and capabilities like food delivery have not yet been launched. The above content comes from "Du Jia" reports and tests, not an official announcement from Doubao.

Circle announced a partnership with Tereina, a financial services company supported by SAP, to integrate its USDC and EURC stablecoins into enterprise payment processes. Companies using SAP financial software can directly send and receive USDC and EURC within their applications used for managing payments. USDC will serve as the preferred stablecoin for dollar-denominated transactions, while EURC will be used for euro-denominated payments.Tereina provides payment infrastructure that can be embedded in enterprise software, allowing companies to complete payments without switching to a separate financial platform. Both parties stated that they plan to test the stablecoin integration solution with customers in the coming months, covering global payment and cash management operations. According to the announcement, the SAP ecosystem supports 84% of global business activities, which brings extensive enterprise reach potential for this integration.This collaboration comes less than a month after Circle launched its Layer 1 blockchain Arc mainnet, focused on stablecoin payments and financial markets. Arc uses USDC to pay transaction fees and supports over 20 fiat-backed stablecoins, including USDC and EURC.

Executives from World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a cryptocurrency project supported by the Trump family, revealed at the stablecoin-themed roundtable forum during the Token2049 conference in Singapore that they plan to introduce USD1 stablecoin payments to large online merchants. WLFI CEO Zach Witkoff attended alongside co-founder Zak Folkman and Bam Azizi, co-founder and CEO of payment infrastructure provider Mesh. Azizi announced that Mesh has partnered with WLFI, allowing USD1 holders to spend the stablecoin within Mesh's merchant network, with related features set to launch this quarter.Folkman stated that in addition to World Liberty's own application, the team plans to promote the same technology to some of the largest Web2 enterprises in the market. USD1 is issued by BitGo, with reserves including cash, U.S. government money market funds, and other cash equivalents, designed to maintain a 1 dollar peg. According to CoinGecko data, its market capitalization is approximately 4.45 billion dollars.In August, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) granted conditional approval for WLFI to establish a national trust bank, which is intended for issuing dollar-backed stablecoins and custodial services for digital assets. Witkoff stated that this move will enable WLFI to assume the issuance responsibilities of USD1, which is currently managed by BitGo.

Dragonfly Managing Partner Haseeb Qureshi stated during his speech at the TOKEN2049 summit today that the narrative from earlier this year that "agents will fully adopt cryptocurrency payments" has been debunked; the reality is that traditional channels like credit cards are already prepared.The real shift is that------agents do not need cryptocurrency; you do. Agents will make cryptocurrency reliable (like banks preventing your foolish actions), while in an era of panoramic prisons where AI significantly reduces monitoring costs and physical attacks surge, cryptocurrency and private AI become the last line of defense for individuals against state power and the reclamation of privacy.