AI assistants can already plan trips, draft emails, and point users to a nearby coffee shop. What most still cannot do is complete the purchase.
That gap sits at the center of the so-called agentic economy, where AI agents act for users to book services, pay for data, and settle transactions. For that to work, agents need a way to move money that is instant, programmable, and trusted, according to Decrypt.
AI companies have raised tens of billions of dollars, but much of that work remains in what the industry describes as a knowledge layer: systems that generate recommendations instead of taking actions.
Why AI agents still stop short of payment
In a recent FintechTV interview, XDC Network co-founder Atul Khekade said the issue is not simply what AI can suggest, but what it can safely execute.
"They're not actually doing actions for you, and that's for a reason," Khekade said, pointing to the lack of "real-time settlement… compliance, dispute resolution, KYC, AML, and that exact trust layer which AI needs."
Decrypt said companies ranging from card networks to crypto startups are now trying to close that gap.
The x402 standard
One of the key building blocks to emerge is x402, an open payment standard introduced by Coinbase in 2025. It revives the HTTP 402 Payment Required status code, which had been reserved since the 1990s but never put to use.
In an x402 exchange, a server can charge for an API call or a piece of data, while the client, including an autonomous AI agent, can settle that charge in stablecoins within the same request. The flow does not require an account, an API key, or human sign-off.
XDC Network is one of the platforms building on that standard. Its XDC AI framework combines x402 with gasless USDC settlement, so users do not pay network fees directly. The idea is to let AI agents pay on a per-request basis.
In a LinkedIn post, XDC Network co-founder Ritesh Kakkad said that combination is “building the actual rails” for agentic commerce, enabling AI agents to “autonomously pay per API call, book services, and settle trades in real-time at sub-cent fees.”
Inside XDC AI
XDC AI is designed as shared infrastructure for agent payments. Rather than have every business build its own rails, the company says developers can connect to a common marketplace.
In Khekade’s description, that could allow “coffee shops or DoorDash or travel companies” to build “agentic applications” on the network.
XDC Network has been working on institutional infrastructure for years. Launched in 2019 by XinFin and co-founded by Khekade and Kakkad, the EVM-compatible Layer-1 is aligned with ISO 20022, the messaging standard used across traditional banking. Decrypt said the network has focused on trade finance, payments, and real-world asset tokenization.
Bridge integration adds stablecoin settlement
XDC Tech, the U.S.-based institutional arm of XDC Network, has integrated Bridge, a Stripe company. The move brings stablecoin settlement into XDC’s agentic AI roadmap.
XDC described that partnership as a foundational part of its plan to become the settlement layer for the agentic economy, where AI agents transact with other agents, businesses, and humans at machine speed. By plugging into infrastructure Bridge already operates, XDC is taking a faster route than building the full stack on its own.
“Every layer of finance is being rebuilt for a world where software, not just people, initiates the payment,” Khekade said. “This partnership gives our ecosystem stablecoin infrastructure that already meets that bar.”
New York demo drew more than 100 attendees
XDC recently showcased its XDC AI marketplace at its New York office. According to the report, the demonstration drew more than 100 industry representatives from leading banks, tech partners, venture capital, family offices, AI tech firms, and ecosystem builders.
Khekade said those attendees were “very excited to see what we are building right now.”
“AI agents are becoming economic agents.”
In a July 25, 2026 post, Ritesh Kakkad said Khekade demonstrated XDC AI at XDC Tech’s New York office as a framework that combines agentic AI, gasless USDC payments, and XDC Network settlement.
Khekade said the event showed how agentic finance has become the “key translation point for AI to really transact and operate.” With XDC AI, he said, “You can order a coffee. You can book your tickets.”
From recommendation to execution
Once connected through XDC AI’s MCP connector API in an assistant’s settings, a chatbot that could previously only direct a user to a coffee shop “will actually do that transaction for you,” Khekade said.
He called that shift “quite transformative in a way,” given that these systems currently lack a monetization layer.
Khekade also framed compliance and risk controls as central to the model. Autonomous software, he argued, needs “a risk compliance and spending limits layer” to operate safely. He said XDC has “already built it and perfected it,” with the network serving as a “cushion” between mainstream systems, AI compute, and their transaction capability.
The road ahead
Agent-driven payments are still some distance from becoming as routine as tapping a card. The standards remain early, and the industry is still working through security, privacy, and control issues.
Still, both traditional finance and crypto builders are already preparing for a future in which agents transact. Kakkad said the “convergence of AI agents, stablecoins, and enterprise blockchain,” especially in trade finance and RWAs, will “unlock massive value.”