Ripple joins Mastercard’s Agent Pay to enable AI agent payments

Ripple has joined Mastercard’s Agent Pay for Machines initiative and will integrate the XRP Ledger (XRPL) and Ripple’s regulated stablecoin RLUSD, Mastercard announced on June 10. Mastercard said the program includes more than 30 partners working to enable payments authorized and settled by autonomous software agents.

Agent Pay for Machines is a framework intended to let software agents authorize, coordinate and settle payments continuously. Mastercard identified use cases such as automated purchases of digital services, logistics payments, loading-bay reservations, cold-chain monitoring data fees and other high-volume, low-value transactions that occur between systems without human intervention.

Ripple described XRPL and RLUSD as components that can provide fast settlement and on-chain governance for those transactions. In a post on X, the company wrote: ‘We’re helping build the infrastructure for trusted agent-driven payments, with the XRP Ledger and RLUSD helping lay the foundation for the future of commerce.’

Markus Infanger, senior vice president of RippleX, described the need for institutional controls to match machine speed and wrote that XRPL and RLUSD are designed so companies can let agents operate within on-chain rules that enforce spending limits and authorization. He added the ledger supports settlement in seconds, predictable costs, programmable compliance and a full audit trail.

Under the collaboration, firms could embed spending limits and authorization logic directly into XRPL transaction flows while using RLUSD as a regulated medium for final on-chain settlement. Ripple emphasized predictable transaction costs and rapid settlement times as operational features for enterprises integrating agent-driven payment flows.

Participants in Mastercard’s program will test how to combine on-chain settlement with existing payment rails and how to meet audit and compliance requirements across jurisdictions. Mastercard described the initiative as a framework to develop common rules and technical patterns that multiple providers can implement.

The XRP Ledger is an open-source blockchain focused on low-cost payments and programmable transaction logic. RLUSD is a Ripple-issued stablecoin intended for regulated on-chain settlement. RippleX is the unit within Ripple that focuses on XRPL developer tools and enterprise adoption.