Circle Internet Group made a major push into the AI economy on Monday, launching a suite of tools that allow AI agents to independently hold and spend USDC stablecoins, while also reporting a $222 million token sale for its Arc network.
The company's new Circle Agent Stack includes agent wallets, a command-line interface, an agent marketplace, and a nanopayments protocol capable of processing USDC transfers as small as $0.000001 at high speed with no gas fees. The technology is designed for high-frequency machine-to-machine micropayments that traditional banking systems cannot handle.
Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said the financial infrastructure is being rebuilt because AI agents cannot navigate manual onboarding and payment flows built for humans. "We believe the next phase of the global economy will be increasingly AI and agent-driven," he stated, adding that AI agents themselves are now the customers, not just developers.
Circle trades on the NYSE under the ticker CRCL. Shares surged nearly 16% on Monday to $131.76, and have climbed almost 50% over the past month. The company reported $77 billion in USDC in circulation at the end of the first quarter, up 28% year-over-year.