trending
Stablecoins are moving rapidly from the margins of crypto markets to the centre of global payments strategy, as artificial intelligence reshapes how economic activity is conducted.
Stablecoins and the coming age
Speaking at the World Economic Forum, Jeremy Allaire, chief executive of Circle, argued that traditional payment infrastructure is fundamentally unsuited to a world in which billions of AI agents transact autonomously.
The next phase of digital commerce, he suggested, will be defined by machine-to-machine payments executed continuously, at high velocity and often in fractions of a cent.
In that environment, card networks and bank wires become not merely inefficient, but structurally incompatible.
Stablecoins, by contrast, offer programmable, near-instant settlement on a global basis – characteristics that align closely with the needs of autonomous systems.
Why AI Needs a Native Payment Layer
As AI agents take on tasks ranging from procurement to data acquisition and service orchestration, they will need a native medium of exchange that can operate without human intervention.
Allaire described the idea of routing such activity through legacy rails as “completely absurd”, noting that no existing banking system can support the scale, speed or granularity required.
New blockchain networks are now being engineered specifically for what Allaire termed “agentic compute”.
Circle’s own Arc chain is one example, designed to allow AI systems to transact with cryptographic verification and minimal latency.
The implication is that payments will increasingly be embedded directly into computational processes, rather than bolted on as a downstream step.
USDC Growth Signals Real-World Momentum
Allaire also pushed back against the notion that stablecoin adoption remains slow or speculative.
He cited sustained annual supply growth of around 80% for USDC and a 580% year-on-year increase in transaction volumes in the most recent quarter.
More telling, however, is where that growth is coming from.
Stablecoins are now being used across cross-border trade settlement, trade finance, peer-to-peer transfers and e-commerce.
Integrations with firms such as Stripe, Shopify, Visa and Mastercard point to a gradual but meaningful convergence between crypto-native instruments and mainstream payment infrastructure.
Emerging Markets and Monetary Realities
Nowhere are the practical benefits more visible than in emerging markets.
Vera Songwe, Chair of the Liquidity and Sustainability Facility, highlighted how stablecoins are reducing the cost and time of remittances into Africa, while also offering a hedge against inflation in economies experiencing sustained currency weakness.
With tens of millions already accessing stablecoins via smartphones, digital dollars are becoming a parallel financial system for many households.
Regulation and the Next Fault Lines
Regulators are making progress, but gaps remain.
IMF deputy managing director Dan Katz stressed that cross-border interoperability will be critical if stablecoins are to deliver systemic benefits.
The debate over interest-bearing stablecoins also continues, though Allaire dismissed fears of deposit flight, noting that in most major jurisdictions stablecoins are legally defined as payment instruments, not savings products.
What is increasingly clear is that as AI-driven commerce scales, payments will have to evolve with it.
Stablecoins are positioning themselves not as an alternative to the financial system, but as the transactional substrate for its next iteration.
Comments