The creators of Payouts.com believe that future payments to agents will use stablecoins and advanced, customizable controls to ensure security and reliability for businesses.
Summary
- Payouts.com CEO Leor Ceder says programmability, not wallets alone, will define which AI agents enterprises can trust by 2027.
- Co-founder Barak Hirchson lists five non-negotiable controls that make autonomous agent spending safe and auditable at scale.
- Stablecoins win in cross-border and machine-to-API micropayments; programmable infrastructure determines which rail gets used everywhere else.
According to Payouts.com founders Leor Ceder and Barak Hirchson, the future of AI-powered shopping will rely on stablecoins and the systems that control them. They believe digital wallets are important, but the real long-term value lies in the underlying rules and programming that manage those wallets.
This role is important because it expands on the current trend of using digital wallets for payments between businesses. Juniper Research predicts that stablecoin payments for international business transactions will grow dramatically, reaching $5 trillion by 2035, compared to $13.4 billion in 2026. Business-to-business payments are expected to account for 85% of all stablecoin transaction value.
Where stablecoins win and where smart rail selection matters
According to Payouts.com’s chief solutions officer, Paul Hirchson, the best payment method (‘rail’) depends on the recipient’s location, how they want to be paid, how quickly they need the funds, the payment amount, and cost considerations. Stablecoins are a clear winner in two specific situations.
Sending money internationally, compared to using the SWIFT system, can lose 4 to 5% of the payment due to wire fees and exchange rate differences. Another area is small, automated payments between machines using APIs. A standard called x402 already allows these payments to be billed per use with stablecoins. Crypto.news recently reported that AI programs have processed $73 million in 176 million transactions using cryptocurrency networks, with USDC handling the vast majority – 98.6%.
According to Hirchson, Brazil’s PIX system settles payments in under ten seconds with no fees, while India’s UPI processes hundreds of millions of daily transactions at almost no cost. He argues that successful payment agents are those able to choose the most efficient payment network for each transaction, rather than being restricted to a single network based on their own limitations.
The five non-negotiable agent controls
Hirchson identified five essential safeguards companies must have in place before allowing agents to make transactions on their own. These include: limiting agent access to specific resources, setting strict spending limits directly within the system, requiring digitally signed approvals for each transaction, ensuring payments can’t be duplicated, and defaulting to a secure, blocked state if anything goes wrong.
He explained that programmable spending means setting a budget limit once, then having the system automatically enforce it, allowing flexibility within that limit. When asked if the industry was developing these systems quickly enough, he responded that progress wasn’t consistent.
He explained that some recently shipped wallets have security limits and required agreements. Others are sent with an API key and existing funds, which he warned is the most dangerous setup if the key is stolen.
What the agent payment stack looks like by 2027
According to Ceder, by May 2027, the key question won’t be *which* stablecoin becomes dominant. Instead, it will be about programmability – specifically, how precisely companies can control what automated programs (agents) are permitted to do, how consistently those rules are followed, and how easily they can demonstrate compliance with regulations later on.
Looking back, the current competition among digital wallets will likely seem like the old ‘browser wars’ – a crucial period of growth, but not where the long-term benefits ultimately landed, according to Ceder. He emphasizes that security and regulatory checks need to be integrated directly into the payment system itself, ensuring every transaction is verified for sender, account details, and legal compliance before funds are transferred.
Coinbase and Cloudflare have developed the x402 protocol, which is quickly becoming a popular system for handling payments between businesses. The standard was recently adopted by the Linux Foundation, signaling its growing importance. Amazon Web Services (AWS) integrated x402 into its Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Payments service earlier this month, and Solana and Google have also entered the space with the launch of Pay.sh, offering another payment option.
Payouts.com believes that businesses will primarily manage their spending through the systems built on top of existing payment infrastructure. The core technology remains independent, while the surrounding processes and controls are what will be utilized for enterprise-level spending.
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2026-05-30 08:31