Circle Expands USDC Infrastructure With Nanopayments Launch, Aiming At AI Agents And Digital Payments

In Brief

Circle’s Nanopayments launch introduces gas‑free USDC transfers as small as $0.000001, positioning the system as infrastructure for high‑frequency, machine‑to‑machine payments across AI‑driven applications.

Payments technology company Circle announced the launch of Nanopayments, a new permissionless system built on Circle Gateway that enables gas‑free USDC transfers as small as $0.000001

The new product is positioned as infrastructure for AI agents, high‑frequency settlement, and programmable internet commerce, reflecting a broader push toward automated, machine‑driven payment flows

In its initial framing, the company highlights use cases such as autonomous agent payments, usage‑based billing, machine‑to‑machine compensation, streaming value models, and fully programmable settlement pathways

A private beta on testnet is now open to developers working on agentic systems and applications that require extremely small, fast, or continuous payments. The rollout places Nanopayments within Circle’s broader strategy to expand USDC utility across emerging digital‑commerce environments.

Circle Gateway, is the underlying infrastructure layer, which functions as a cross‑chain system that allows users and developers to maintain a single unified USDC balance accessible instantly across supported blockchains. This design removes the need for repeated bridging and prevents liquidity fragmentation, aiming to simplify how applications move value across networks while supporting the low‑latency requirements of nanopayment‑driven systems.

AI Shift Toward Autonomous Agents Drives Circle’s Push For Frictionless Machine‑To‑Machine Payments

AI is entering a new phase defined by agency, as systems begin acting independently rather than simply responding to prompts, creating a need for lightweight, frictionless payments that can support continuous machine‑to‑machine transactions at high frequency.

Last year, Circle announced that it had been working on frictionless machine‑to‑machine payments, aiming to support high‑throughput autonomous transactions and establish a foundation for AI‑driven financial interactions. This reflected a broader effort to adapt digital payment infrastructure to environments where automated systems operate at speed and scale, requiring settlement mechanisms that function reliably without human initiation.

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