AI Agents Are Starting to Pay for Things in Crypto. Which Coin Do They Use: XRP, Solana, or USDC?

AI agents are already buying and selling from each other millions of times a day, and the cryptocurrency settling those deals was decided months ago without much fanfare. The winner might surprise you, and the real battle has quietly shifted…

This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

Software has been transacting with other software for a year, and most people are unaware of it. By late April 2026, Coinbase reported 69,000 active agents and 165 million transactions, totaling around $50 million in cumulative volume using its x402 standard. In each of those transactions, both the buyer and seller are programs, and the average transfer amount is just a fraction of one cent.

So which cryptocurrency is used to settle these bills? The straightforward answer is that the contest for dominance concluded in the second quarter of 2026. USDC (CRYPTO:USDC) has taken the lead in the market, while XRP (CRYPTO:XRP) and Solana (CRYPTO:SOL) are now playing for different stakes.

Circle’s recent press material revealed that USDC accounts for 98.8% of agent-driven transaction volume. In a prior statement, CEO Jeremy Allaire noted that this figure had reached 99.3% for payments made by AI agents using x402 in the second quarter of 2026.