Google has announced the Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) to initiate and transact agent-led payments across platforms.
AP2 is designed to handle a wide range of payment types, including stablecoins and cryptocurrencies, with an extension built with Coinbase, the Ethereum Foundation and MetaMask to enable agent-based crypto payments.
The system is working to improve the authenticity, accountability and authorisation of payments.
“Bringing x402 into AP2 to power stablecoin payments made sense, it is a natural playground for agents to start transacting with each other and testing out crypto rails,” said Erik Reppel, head of engineering at Coinbase Developer Platform.
AP2 establishes trust through Mandates, cryptographically signed digital contracts that provide verifiable proof of a user’s instructions.
These create a secure audit trail from intent to payment, whether for real time purchases or delegated tasks, ensuring transactions are both authorised and secure.
“Stablecoins provide an obvious solution to the scaling challenges agentic systems are already facing with legacy financial infrastructure,” said Donald Jackson, CTO at BVNK.
“We at BVNK were extremely excited to hear that Google has been working on solving this problem and could not wait to contribute.”
Google said it will develop AP2 in collaboration with industry groups and standards bodies, opening the door to new models like agent authorisation and decentralised identity.
Current participants include Mastercard, Coinbase, BVNK, American Express, Deloitte and PwC.
Partners will also bring AP2 powered commerce tools to its AI Agent Marketplace, from shopping to enterprise uses such as automated procurement.
