Mastercard Launches 'Agent Pay for Machines' (AP4M) — AI Agents Can Now Transact Autonomously With Sub-Cent Micropayments
Startup Fortune·high signal
On June 10, 2026 Mastercard launched AP4M, an open protocol letting AI agents pay each other at machine speed, including micropayments worth fractions of a cent. Agent credentials and spending permissions live on public blockchains (Polygon, Solana, Base), and 31 launch partners include Coinbase, Adyen, Stripe, and Cloudflare. This stands up the missing commerce rail for agent-to-agent SaaS — the layer outcome-based and usage billing has lacked.