Alchemy has launched AgentPay, a payments tool designed for AI agent transactions, following a private beta ahead of a wider release in coming weeks. The product addresses fragmentation in agentic payments by acting as a translation layer between merchants and different payment protocols, without handling customer funds. Traditional payment pricing makes sub-dollar micropayments uneconomical, with Stripe charging 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction. AgentPay supports emerging standards like Coinbase's x402 protocol, which uses on-chain stablecoins such as USDC for pay-per-use transactions. McKinsey estimates AI agents could facilitate up to $5 trillion in global commerce by 2030. By positioning itself as middleware coordinating machine-run micro-transactions, Alchemy moves higher in the software stack whilst potentially facing lower regulatory pressure than traditional payment processors.

Crypto's 'AWS' Alchemy unveils tool to make AI payment systems talk to each other. Alchemy's AgentPay addresses the problem that the agentic payment systems currently coming online don't talk to one another. Apr 8, 2026, 1:43 a.m. * AgentPay promises one integration for every protocol, citing the likes of x402, MPP, A2P, L402. * Alchemy has carried out a private beta soft launch for now, and is aiming for a general release in the coming weeks. Alchemy, a cryptocurrency infrastructure provider used by many blockchains and firms in the space, has released a new tool, AgentPay, that lets different AI payment systems, from companies like Coinbase, Stripe, Visa, Mastercard, and Circle, work together. The new tool addresses the problem that agentic payment systems currently coming online aren't "interoperable", or in other words, don't talk to one another, meaning a merchant that wants AI agents as customers has to build a separate integration for every protocol. "That's not sustainable, and it's only going to get more fragmented as more systems launch," said Alchemy CTO Guillaume Poncin in an email. "AgentPay fixes that. A merchant registers their existing API with us, we give them a new endpoint, and any agent on any supported protocol can pay them through it." Alchemy is widely seen as the "AWS of Web3," as it provides the infrastructure, developer tools, and node services needed to build blockchain applications. AgentPay promises one integration for every protocol, citing the likes of x402, MPP, A2P, L402. "We sit in the middle as the translation layer, where AgentPay routes instructions, and Alchemy never touches the funds," Poncin said. So-called agentic finance, which is expected to become a major pillar of all payments activity on the internet, can involve micro-transactions, or nano-payments, some of which take place between AI agents with humans somewhere in the background. Alchemy has carried out a private beta soft launch for now, and is aiming for a general release in the coming weeks. More For You Mar 31, 2026 Most crypto privacy models weaken as blockchain data grows. Encryption-based models like Zcash strengthen. CoinDesk Research maps the five privacy approaches and examines the widening gap. Why it matters: As blockchain adoption scales, the metadata available to machine learning models scales with it. Obfuscation-based privacy approaches are structurally degrading as a result. This report provides a comprehensive comparison of all five major crypto privacy architectures and a framework for evaluating which models remain durable as AI capabilities improve. 5 hours ago One paper finds that attacking the bitcoin blockchain through quantum mining would demand the energy output of a star. Another replicates every major "quantum factoring breakthrough" using a 1981 home computer and a dog. What to know: * Quantum computers pose a genuine long-term risk to bitcoin, but current fears often conflate wallet vulnerabilities with largely impractical threats to mining. * New research finds that a quantum 51% attack on bitcoin mining would require star-level energy and hardware on a scale that is physically unreachable. * The more realistic concern...

Uniblock has raised $5.2 million in new funding, bringing total capital to $7.5 million. Investors include SBI, AllianceDAO, Blockchain Founders Fund, NGC Ventures, Alchemy and MoonPay. The blockchain infrastructure provider operates a managed layer across more than 300 blockchains through 55 data partners, using patented auto-routing technology for provider selection, failover and data normalisation. The platform provides access to over 3,000 APIs through a single connection. Currently, 3,000 projects and 4,000 developers use Uniblock, including Plume Network, Stellar Blockchain and Apechain. The company has launched AI-native developer tools including an MCP server and LLM-optimised documentation for coding environments like Cursor and GitHub Copilot.