AI agents can manage tasks.
AI agents can trade crypto.
AI agents can pay each other without human supervision.
=== you are here now ===
Coinbase, Stripe, and Mastercard have all shipped infrastructure for machine-to-machine (M2M) payments in the past few weeks. And now the real test of whether blockchains can handle thousands of small, constant payments a second begins.
Together with Elias Vilochkin, ChangeNOW's Chief Product Officer and an outspoken AI enthusiast, we try to figure out how developing M2M solutions will impact the payment environment and which infrastructure can handle them better.
Key Takeaways
- Blockchains are ready for the workload: Modern networks like Solana and TON already have the speed and capacity to handle massive volumes of automated AI payments.
- Smart limits can keep budgets safe: Using programmable smart wallets, developers can set strict daily spending caps and rules so AI agents can't accidentally drain funds.
- Traditional finance and crypto are teaming up: Giants like Visa and Mastercard are working with Web3, and not against it, to build the infrastructure for autonomous machine-to-machine transactions.
- Seamless integration is the ultimate goal: The real breakthrough will be a unified system where AI agents can move money effortlessly between crypto and traditional payment rails without human input.
Scalability
VisaNet can potentially handle up to 83,000 transactions per second. Its actual daily volume is much lower, averaging between 1,700 and 2,000 TPS. Meanwhile Mastercard operates up to 5,000 TPS.
Blockchains need to get close to that range, at least during traffic spikes, if they want their M2M payments to work at scale.
Some L1 networks like Solana and TON are already very close to those benchmarks. Solana’s theoretical maximum reaches 65,000 TPS with real-world average fluctuating between 2,000 and 4,000 TPS.
There’s no need for a single chain to carry the whole market, though. Different networks already each take their own niche: some are tuned for DeFi traffic, others for fast, cheap transfers.
If M2M payments grow the way Coinbase, Stripe, and Mastercard are predicting they will, that load will likely spread across multiple chains instead of piling onto one.
“The throughput of a single L2 network is already comparable to the average flow of Visa or Mastercard. Considering that different networks dominate different tasks, trying to cover the entire market's demand with one chain isn't the goal, so I don't see that becoming a big issue. Networks like SOL and TON are technologically ready to sustain TPS at the official limits of Visa and Mastercard. Reliable bridge infrastructure, like the one we provide, allows for elegant liquidity balancing across these networks. Plus, the crypto market has repeatedly shown its adaptability to new challenges. It's our key feature — we've been adapting to new hype cycles and tasks for over 10 years. Something might fall off at first, but then the community will hack together a solution overnight, and we’ll move even faster.”
