Alchemy has launched AgentCard, a virtual Visa card and identity product built for AI agents that need to transact across real-world digital commerce systems. The product is integrated with Visa Intelligent Commerce and defaults to Visa-issued payment tokens, while also supporting crypto payments and agent-native payment protocols where merchants allow them.
One API setup gives agents payment and identity credentials
According to Alchemy, developers can use a single API configuration to equip an AI agent with a Visa payment token, dedicated email address, phone number, and crypto wallet. The aim is to cut the friction involved in deploying agents that must interact with merchants, payment systems, and identity checks. For agents built to search, buy, subscribe, book, and handle recurring tasks, payments are moving into the infrastructure layer rather than sitting as a secondary feature.
AgentCard supports tokenized card payments and can also use crypto when a merchant accepts it. Alchemy said the product will also work with emerging agent payment standards, including Coinbase-incubated x402 and Stripe’s Machine Payments Protocol. The system defaults to Visa-issued tokens, but it can shift to crypto or agent-native rails when those options are available. In the company’s announcement, Alchemy said AgentCard can automatically upgrade the payment path as merchant and network adoption expands, without requiring developers to reconfigure the setup.
Spend controls are built into the product
Autonomous payments create a different risk model, and AgentCard includes controls meant to limit that exposure. Users can set merchant restrictions, per-transaction limits, budgets, and other rules. An AI agent may need room to act on its own, but businesses and users still need clear boundaries on where it can spend, when it can transact, and how much it is allowed to use.
Visa, Mastercard, and crypto firms are all moving into agent payments
AgentCard arrives as payment networks, wallet providers, and crypto infrastructure companies race to support AI-driven transactions. Visa’s role gives Alchemy a route into one of the largest global payment networks while leaving the door open for crypto and agent-native protocols as adoption develops. Similar moves are already visible elsewhere: Mastercard has introduced Agent Pay for Machines, MetaMask has launched Agent Wallet for access to the Ethereum ecosystem, and Tether-backed wallet startup Oobit has rolled out virtual corporate Visa spending cards that let bots spend from USDT balances.
These launches point to the same thesis: AI agents may become a new class of economic actor. They will need identity, permissions, wallets, cards, compliance checks, budgets, and transaction logs. For crypto firms, the opportunity is clear. Stablecoins and blockchain wallets already support programmable transfers, fast settlement, and global value movement, but merchant acceptance is still uneven. Card-network integration can cover that acceptance gap while crypto rails continue to develop.
Alchemy extends its infrastructure role beyond onchain access
Alchemy is widely known as a core developer platform behind onchain activity, and AgentCard pushes that role into payments, identity, and agent operations. Alchemy founder Nikil Viswanathan has argued that crypto is especially well suited to AI agents rather than only human users. AgentCard turns that view into a commercial product.
Flor Ronsmans De Vry, co-creator of AgentCard, said the hardest part of deploying an agent today is not the intelligence itself, but getting it configured to operate in the real world. He said the product is designed to collapse that setup into a single step for developers building on OpenAI or Anthropic. What comes next will depend on merchant adoption, developer uptake, and whether agent-native payment protocols can become practical at scale.