Analysis: With the rise of smart agent payments, Circle and Coinbase have become the "best representative targets" benefiting from the growth of stablecoins

According to The Block, analysts from the research and brokerage firm Bernstein pointed out that Circle and Coinbase are the main tools for gaining exposure to the growth of stablecoins, due to the partnership between the two companies around USDC and the emerging role of stablecoins in smart agent payments, which could become an important driver of their future growth.

In a report released on Monday, analysts led by Gautam Chhugani wrote, "We believe that smart agent payments provide an upside optionality for stablecoins. This is not a factor that currently has a substantial impact on the demand for stablecoins, but in the future smart agent economy, stablecoins may play a certain role." The analysts noted that so-called machine payments refer to transactions initiated, authorized, and completed by software or autonomous devices, rather than by human operation. These payments differ from automatic bill payments or subscription models; they are essentially programmatic, enabling real-time decision-making, price negotiation, and instant settlement without human intervention.

Bernstein believes that stablecoins have a natural advantage in this environment because of their programmability, instant settlement capabilities, support for micropayments, and global reach. Payment logic such as escrow, conditional payments, or revenue distribution can be directly embedded in stablecoins, allowing smart agents to complete transactions without connecting to banks or waiting for confirmations.

The report also pointed out that transactions can be settled in seconds, allowing AI agents to pay for computing power or data in real-time; high-throughput blockchains and state channels make large-scale micropayments economically viable; at the same time, stablecoins have cross-border attributes, eliminating the need to rely on SWIFT, correspondent banking systems, or foreign exchange conversions, thereby further reducing transaction costs.