Google formally unveiled the Agent Payments Protocol (AP2), a new open standard designed to let AI agents buy things on behalf of people, and crucially, to do so using stablecoins and other crypto rails alongside cards and bank transfers. The announcement, published on Google Cloud’s blog, frames AP2 as a payments “language” for the emerging world of agent-led commerce: tamper-proof mandates, verifiable credentials and an auditable trail that proves an agent had permission to act and exactly what it bought.
At the center of AP2 is the idea that autonomous agents break the assumption that a human is always the one clicking “buy.” To address that, Google built Mandates, cryptographically signed, non-repudiable contracts that log intent (what you told your agent to do), cart contents (what the agent picked), and the final payment linkage. That chain of evidence is intended to answer the three big questions agents create: authorization, authenticity and accountability. AP2 is explicitly payment-agnostic and “supports different payment types, from credit and debit cards to stablecoins and real-time bank transfers.”
Big Payments Players Signed Up
Google isn’t starting from scratch on crypto payments. The AP2 spec includes an A2A x402 extension, a production-ready bridge that brings Coinbase’s agent-focused stablecoin payment protocol into AP2. That extension was created with input from Coinbase, the Ethereum Foundation, MetaMask and other Web3 groups so that agentic systems can route payments over crypto rails when appropriate. In the blog, Coinbase’s Erik Reppel frames x402 + AP2 as a natural playground for agents to experiment with stablecoin rails.
For context, Coinbase and other firms have been quietly building the plumbing to make stablecoin checkout feasible. Coinbase introduced the x402 approach to enable instant stablecoin payments over standard web flows earlier this year, and has rolled out merchant-facing stablecoin services and developer tools meant to lower integration friction. That prior work meant Google could fold crypto-friendly constructs directly into AP2 rather than bolt them on later.
AP2 is launching with a wide partner list. Google says more than 60 organizations are helping shape the spec, including Coinbase, PayPal, Mastercard, American Express, Adyen, Revolut, Mysten Labs, Etsy and dozens of banks, fintechs and infrastructure providers. That coalition is important. If agentic commerce is going to scale, merchants, card networks, wallets and crypto firms all need a common rulebook.
The timing dovetails with moves from incumbent payments firms to support stablecoin rails. Mastercard, for example, has been rolling out stablecoin capabilities and tooling for wallets and merchant checkouts this year. It is an industry push that lowers the barriers for AP2’s multi-rail ambitions.
Why Stablecoins Matter for Agentic Commerce
Google and many partners argue that stablecoins solve key friction points for autonomous workflows: instant settlement, global reach, programmable logic (e.g., conditions embedded in the payment), and the ability for agents to perform micropayments without repeated human approvals. For agentic systems that might be buying frequent, low-value digital goods or orchestrating cross-border bookings, those properties can be decisive. Several backers explicitly call out stablecoins as an obvious way to scale agent-to-agent flows.
AP2 is a standard play, not a finished consumer product. That leaves open immediate practical questions: how will custody and redemption be handled at scale for merchant payouts; what liability and dispute processes will attach to agent-signed mandates; and how will regulators treat agentic crypto payments, especially where fiat on- and off-ramps are required? The industry is already debating stablecoins’ systemic role and regulation, so AP2’s success will depend as much on regulatory clarity and merchant acceptance as on technical design.
Google has published the AP2 technical spec and reference implementations on GitHub and is inviting the payments and developer community to iterate on the protocol. Expect vendors to prototype agent-enabled checkout experiences quickly, and for crypto-first merchants and wallets to be early testbeds given AP2’s native support for stablecoins. For the crypto ecosystem, AP2 is a clear signal that major infrastructure players are serious about integrating digital-asset rails into mainstream commerce.
