Mastercard launches Agent Pay for Machines on June 17, 2026 with Aave, Coinbase, OKX, Polygon, Ripple and Solana

Mastercard said on June 17, 2026 it has launched Agent Pay, an automated payments protocol designed for machines, with Aave, Coinbase, OKX, Polygon, Ripple and Solana as initial partners. The protocol is intended to enable real-time, compliant and programmable payments between entities such as IoT devices and AI agents, using a blockchain settlement layer. Partners will integrate their technology stacks to support cross-chain asset settlement and identity verification. Mastercard said the system is not a marketing pilot and has entered production deployment, marking what it described as the first deep integration of traditional financial infrastructure with on-chain payment primitives.