Stablecoin

On Wednesday, Visa used its annual payments forum to argue that stablecoins are becoming core plumbing for global payments while it broadens efforts in AI and tokenization. The company said it has moved billions in stablecoins via VisaNet, with an annualized run rate of $7 billion as of March 2026, and it plans to expand stablecoin settlement pilots across regions, blockchains, and currencies.

Luno CEO James Lanigan said South Africa's proposed Capital Flow Management Regulations could weaken the country's competitiveness by constraining stablecoin use and cross-border payments. He pointed to Bloomberg figures showing stablecoins handled $33 trillion in 2025 payments and blockchain transfers, warning restrictive wording could keep local businesses from accessing that market. The National Treasury and SARB extended the public comment deadline from May 18 to June 30, 2026, and plan to publish a draft manual defining what counts as a cross-border crypto transaction.

Mastercard announced on June 10 that it has launched Agent Pay for Machines (AP4M), a platform aimed at enabling AI agents and software services to execute payments autonomously. The system is built for continuous, high-frequency, machine-speed transactions and can settle via multiple rails, including stablecoins and bank accounts. Coinbase, Ripple, Solana Foundation, OKX, and several payment firms said they are participating in the effort.

Dragonfly general partner Rob Hadick said stablecoins could grow 10x as payments adoption accelerates. He argued the next wave of value creation will shift from reserve-yield economics toward distribution, compliance, and payment rails, with USDT and USDC likely facing stronger competition from banks and fintechs.

Ripple is taking part in Mastercard's Agent Pay for Machines program, positioning the XRP Ledger (XRPL) and its RLUSD stablecoin for AI-enabled, autonomous payments. Mastercard said on June 10 it is collaborating with more than 30 partners to support always-on machine transactions that require controls, permissions, and dependable settlement. Ripple and RippleX executives emphasized rule-based spending limits, auditability, and regulated stablecoin settlement as agent-driven commerce expands.

On June 9, Coinbase tax VP Lawrence Zlatkin told the House Ways and Means Committee that Americans should not have to calculate capital gains each time they spend a stablecoin or pay a blockchain transaction fee. He said dollar-pegged, federally regulated stablecoins should be treated at par for tax purposes and supported exempting gas-fee reporting up to $10. Coinbase also urged a broader de minimis rule for small purchases using Bitcoin (BTC) and other non-stablecoin crypto.

Tether said on June 10 it will lead a Series C financing of up to $1.4 billion for Germany's NEURA Robotics. The plan includes integrating Tether's open-source Wallet Development Kit into NEURA's robots so they can hold self-custodial wallets and carry out crypto payments, including micropayments, under predefined rules. NEURA is also set to test and deploy Tether's QVAC edge AI runtime inside its Neuraverse software platform.

Ripple Labs' RippleX introduced the XRP Ledger AI Starter Kit on June 10, rolling it out in stages to help developers build agent-powered apps and enable autonomous payments on XRPL. The toolkit adds support for the X402 web payments protocol, allowing AI agents to pay for services using XRP and Ripple USD (RLUSD). It also includes an MCP server so tools like Claude Code, Claude Desktop, and Cursor can query XRPL documentation directly.

MUFG Bank, Mizuho Bank and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation said on June 10, 2026 they signed an MOU to jointly develop a yen-pegged stablecoin and start real corporate transactions during Japan’s fiscal year 2026, which ends March 31, 2027. The project follows a November 2025 FSA-approved proof of concept and comes as USD-backed stablecoins are estimated at 84% to 90% of a $300+ billion global stablecoin market.

Mastercard has launched its Agent Pay for Machines program for autonomous AI-to-AI settlements, with Ripple participating through the XRP Ledger and the regulated stablecoin RLUSD. The pilot documentation does not reference XRP, but RippleX says its XRPL AI Starter Kit enables agent-to-agent payments using XRP and RLUSD, including automatic DEX conversion to XRP in 3–5 seconds.