AI Agents Settled $73M via Stablecoins in a Year: Keyrock Report

Artificial intelligence started paying. Over 12 months from May 2025 through April 2026, AI agents completed 176 million transactions totaling $73 million. Stablecoins became the default settlement layer for this market. Keyrock, the crypto investment firm, published these figures in a report co-authored with Coinbase and the Tempo blockchain in May 2026.

The average transaction size was $0.31. That single number explains why traditional payment networks never had a chance here.

In One Year, the Machine Payment Market Reached $73M

By the end of Q1 2026, more than 104,000 AI agents were registered across 15 or more directories and platforms. Most of them autonomously pay for API calls, data services, and cloud computing. Transaction sizes range from a few cents to a few dollars.

Keyrock researcher Ben Harvey wrote that "in the past 12 months, machine-to-machine payments have gone from concept to a developed ecosystem." By his estimate, large financial and technology companies have already deployed more than $8 billion in acquisitions to secure their position in the new payment stack.

In April 2025, CoinGecko surveyed 2,632 crypto holders, and 87% said they would let AI agents manage at least 10% of their portfolio. The market is moving faster than analysts predicted.

Why Traditional Payment Networks Lost Here From the Start

The core argument of the Keyrock report: traditional payment networks are structurally unfit for the microtransactions of the agent economy. Harvey gives a concrete example. An agent paying $0.03 for a weather API call cannot route through Visa. Visa's fixed processing fee runs about $0.30 per transaction. That means the agent would pay a fee ten times the cost of the purchase itself.

"Stablecoins won the settlement layer for machine commerce almost by default. They were the only instrument that could handle sub-dollar transactions without the economics collapsing," Harvey wrote.

Blockchain rails are not just cheaper. They have no minimum transaction threshold, run 24/7, and require no prior authorization from a bank or payment operator. For an AI agent processing thousands of micropayments per minute, that is a decisive advantage.

USDC Controls Over 98% of Settlements: Concentration Risk

More than 98% of all AI agent settlements happened in USDC from Circle. Harvey calls this both a validation and a vulnerability. Circle's stablecoin has become the de facto standard for agent commerce payments. But the entire system depends on a single issuer.

"This is a lot of dependence on a single stablecoin issuer's reserve management, regulatory standing, and technical infrastructure. If Circle faces a regulatory challenge, a de-peg event, or sustained downtime, the agent economy has no fallback," Harvey wrote.

Keyrock identified the main systemic risk scenarios:

• Regulatory pressure on Circle. Licensing changes or new regulatory requirements could restrict USDC access for agent settlements.
• A USDC de-peg during a reserve crisis would freeze the entire machine payment network without a backup option.
• A prolonged Circle outage would halt agent settlements if the market has not developed an alternative.
• The absence of stablecoin competition raises systemic risk for the entire agent payment market.

Harvey wrote that this risk is not publicly discussed in the industry, and it warrants serious attention as volumes scale.

$8 Billion in Deals: Large Players Secure Their Position

While the agent market grew, traditional companies responded with acquisitions. Keyrock tracked more than $8 billion in deals from financial and technology giants racing to occupy a position in the new payment stack before it closes.

Whoever controls the settlement layer of the agent economy controls the payment infrastructure of the next generation. Missing this window means depending on standards set by someone else. Large banks and fintech firms understand this.

Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire predicted in January 2026 that billions of AI agents will manage stablecoins on behalf of users within five years. The Keyrock report shows the start has already happened, and the first year produced a real $73 million.

Solana, Ethereum, and the Blockchain Infrastructure Question

Keyrock does not break down settlements by blockchain in this report, but the direction is already clear. Most agent activity is concentrated on networks where transaction costs run below $0.01 and confirmation takes seconds. Ethereum mainnet, with current fees of $0.50-5, does not meet the requirements of a micropayment market at a $0.31 average ticket size.

In May 2026, Exodus launched an AI agent-focused stablecoin on Solana. This shows that L1 chains with fast and cheap transactions are becoming the natural home for agent commerce.

For Ethereum, this trend means pressure toward Layer-2 solutions. If agents adopt Solana or Base as their settlement layer, Ethereum may remain the foundation for large corporate settlements, but not for the sub-dollar micropayment market.

What Comes Next for the Agent Economy

Keyrock does not give a numerical forecast, but it maps out several directions. The first: stablecoin competition is inevitable. If 98% of the market depends on one asset, any serious player will eventually propose an alternative.

The second direction: regulatory clarity. The SEC and CFTC have not yet defined rules for AI agents managing financial transactions. Until those rules arrive, the market grows in a gray area.

RWA.xyz data shows $34 billion in real-world assets are tokenized today. The agent market is still a small fraction of that figure. But $73 million in the first year at an average of $0.31 per transaction says one thing: this market scales through volume, not ticket size. Kurslog tracks stablecoin rates and helps users exchange crypto in Ukraine in real time.