Key Takeaways:
Payment giant American Express announced this week it is exploring the use of stablecoins for settlement and has launched a new development toolkit for AI-driven commerce, signaling a significant push into emerging financial technologies.
"This is about creating the next generation of commerce," an American Express spokesperson said in the announcement. "We see a future where AI agents can securely act on behalf of consumers, and where blockchain-based payments can offer more efficiency for our global network."
The company's "proxy commerce development toolkit" is designed to enable AI assistants to securely make purchases for users, a move aimed at the growing landscape of intelligent agents. More significantly for the digital asset sector, Amex is actively exploring how stablecoins—digital tokens pegged to a stable asset like the U.S. dollar—can be used for settlement. This could potentially streamline the billions of dollars in transactions that flow through its network, particularly for cross-border payments, by offering faster and more efficient clearing than traditional rails.
This exploration comes as the total market capitalization of stablecoins stands above $160 billion, according to data from DefiLlama. American Express's move follows similar initiatives from rivals Visa and Mastercard, which have been actively developing their own strategies for integrating stablecoins and CBDCs. By investigating stablecoin settlement, American Express is positioning itself to compete in a future where blockchain-based payment systems become mainstream, potentially increasing the legitimacy and adoption of the technology across the entire financial industry.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
