Coinbase Business Expands Payment Functionality, Supports AI Agents and USDT Payments

On August 12th, Coinbase officially announced a significant functional expansion for its enterprise-grade payment product, Coinbase Business, aiming to provide businesses with more flexible payment methods while embracing emerging automated economic scenarios.

The most notable change in this upgrade is the official support for AI Agent payments. As AI agents begin to autonomously purchase digital services, make purchases on behalf of others, and even independently execute on-chain transactions, traditional payment infrastructure struggles to meet the demands of high-frequency, low-latency machine-to-machine interactions. Coinbase Business introduces the open machine-to-machine payment standard x402, allowing AI agents to directly initiate payments. Funds are instantly settled to the business account in USDC, and businesses can choose to earn holding returns or withdraw funds at any time, thus completing the payment loop for the AI economy.

Simultaneously, the Coinbase Business payment suite is fully integrated with USDT. Businesses can now receive USDT through various methods, including payment links, checkout pages, and invoices. The system automatically converts USDT to USDC and deposits it into the business account, simplifying the management of multiple stablecoins.

In terms of functional details, Coinbase has added reusable payment links, allowing businesses to set payment limits, pause, or permanently close links, suitable for subscription-based or limited-time events. It also supports flexible pricing, allowing businesses to set minimum or maximum payment amounts, particularly useful for donations, tips, and services-based billing. Furthermore, the unified product catalog feature allows businesses to enter product information once and reuse it across different payment channels; the buyer information collection module automatically obtains customer names, email addresses, and shipping addresses, helping businesses build customer data.

For businesses new to crypto payments, Coinbase Business retains its core advantages: lower fees than traditional credit cards, zero chargeback risk, instant USDC settlement, and interest-bearing on idle USDC balances, further lowering the barrier to entry for businesses embracing Web3 payments.

This upgrade signifies Coinbase's transformation from a simple trading platform into a comprehensive payment infrastructure serving the real economy and the digital economy, providing crucial payment layer support, especially for AI-driven business automation.