PANews reported on May 24 that, according to Coindesk, a recent report from industry firm Keyrock shows that traditional payment channels are not well-suited for small-amount, high-frequency machine payment scenarios, and blockchain-encrypted links are gradually becoming the default payment carrier for AI agents.

Statistics show that in the past year, AI Agent-related on-chain transactions reached 176 million, with a settlement scale exceeding $73 million. Currently, machine payment settlement is highly centralized, with 98.6% of transactions completed using the USDC stablecoin. This not only solidifies the issuer's industry position but also creates potential risks associated with reliance on a single currency. Several technology and payment giants, including Google, Visa, and Coinbase, are deploying dedicated machine payment architectures to compete in this market. As AI-driven autonomous consumption scenarios continue to expand, institutions predict that related transaction volumes will experience rapid growth in the future, potentially reaching $15 trillion by 2028.

Most AI transactions involve low-value transactions, making traditional payment fee models difficult to adapt to, highlighting the cost advantages of on-chain stablecoin settlement. Currently, supporting regulatory rules in this field are not yet fully developed, and issues such as defining responsibilities and verifying the identities of stakeholders may become constraints on the industry's future expansion.