Wirex has joined Visa’s Agentic Ready programme to help test how artificial intelligence agents can initiate and complete payments using stablecoins.

According to an announcement from Wirex, the company will participate as an issuer in Visa’s new initiative, which is focused on developing payment systems that allow software agents to carry out financial transactions on behalf of users while maintaining security and consumer controls.

The programme comes as businesses increasingly experiment with AI-powered tools capable of handling tasks without constant human input.

Wirex said the agentic economy is expanding at an annual rate of 44% and argued that stablecoins offer payment infrastructure that can operate continuously without the limitations of traditional banking systems.

Visa is testing stablecoins across multiple payment use cases

Under the programme, Wirex will work alongside Visa and other ecosystem participants to test how AI-driven agents can execute payments in real-world environments.

According to Wirex, the trials will focus on making sure transactions remain secure, reliable, and consistent with consumer expectations around transparency and control.

Early testing will examine use cases including software-as-a-service subscriptions, marketing budget management, and procurement processes for businesses.

The latest initiative adds to Visa’s growing involvement in blockchain-based payments. As reported by crypto.news earlier, Visa recently worked with Brale and participants on the Canton Network to test stablecoin settlement using Brale’s SBC token.

According to the companies involved, the proof-of-concept explored whether privacy-enabled blockchain infrastructure could support institutional payments without exposing sensitive transaction information.

Rather than using public blockchain networks, the Canton project examined settlement activity within a permissioned environment designed for financial institutions that require greater control over transaction visibility.

Over the past several years, Visa has also expanded stablecoin-related payment programs. Earlier efforts included settlement using Circle’s USDC on Ethereum, while newer projects have explored stablecoin-funded payments, tokenized asset spending, and crypto rewards products.

Wirex says business demand for agentic payments is increasing

Wirex said its participation builds on an existing relationship with Visa, of which the company is already a principal member. According to Wirex, the collaboration will explore how AI systems can handle payment-related tasks such as booking travel, managing subscriptions, and executing transactions without requiring approval at every stage.

While discussing the project, Wirex emphasized that users will continue to provide consent and retain visibility over how transactions are carried out.

Commenting on the announcement, Wirex co-founder and CEO Pavel Matveev said agent-driven interactions are becoming more common across the company’s business customer base.

“Together with Visa, we want to introduce a trusted model for payments to lead this shift, delegating financial actions to software whilst operating within Visa’s global payment networks and Wirex’s decade-long track record of compliance.”

Recent Visa-linked crypto payment initiatives have extended beyond stablecoin settlement. Earlier this month, a Visa card issued through Tether and Fasset enabled users to spend tokenized gold while earning rewards denominated in Tether Gold. Separately, SBI Group launched a Visa-linked card in Japan that offers Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP rewards through SBI VC Trade.

A Florida man earned more than 700,000 views on X for explaining how he’s intentionally paying his taxes late to buy more bitcoin (BTC).

He seems to think that the 7.55% APR penalty interest that the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) charges for his tax “payment plan” makes buying BTC instead of paying his taxes on time a smart trade, because he believes BTC will rally more than that.

Describing his conduct, he said he “stopped paying taxes from my paycheck and bought BTC instead.” He then applied for a tax payment plan and is paying off his balance over three years, including penalties that he considers modest.

He claimed his intentionally late tax payments make him “A BTC treasury company, personified.”

IRS payment plans: ‘If you can’t pay’

Only the US government has the enforcement power over any misdemeanor conduct under 26 U.S. Code § 7203, “Willful failure to pay tax.”

On the IRS website, payments plans are repeatedly qualified with the condition that both short-term and long-term payment plans are for people who cannot pay on-time.

“If you can’t pay in full immediately, you may qualify for additional time,” reads IRS Topic number 202.

It continues, “If you’re not able to pay your balance in full immediately or within 180 days, you may qualify for a monthly payment plan.”

Protos staff wanted to confirm that this declaration was visible on the website at the point of application. Indeed, at irs.gov/payments — the logged-in version where a taxpayer would apply for a payment plan — directly above the button “Apply for a payment plan,” the following text appears: “If you can’t pay what you owe, you have options. Apply for a payment plan.”

This condition of ability to pay, not willingness to pay is repeated across the IRS website.

On its FAQ page, the IRS reiterates, “If you can’t pay the full amount due, pay as much as you can and visit IRS.gov/payments to consider our online payment options.”

Using a tax payment plan to finance BTC buys

The Florida man posted that he stopped paying taxes and bought BTC instead. He filed his return in April, paid nothing, and sat back to see what would happen. When the IRS reminded him that his taxes were overdue, he wrote, “I was waiting for this.”

He has a name for his conduct. Asked about the maneuver, Lux called it “Creative accounting.” He retweeted a claim by an interesting tax professional who agreed that “the US treasury is cheaper than a HELOC, credit card.”

Securitize CEO Carlos Domingo said he believes tokenized equities and ETFs, not private credit or Treasury products, will be the asset class that ultimately drives the real-world asset (RWA) market into the trillions.

Speaking at a ETHConf panel in New York on Tuesday, Domingo argued that bringing stocks and exchange-traded funds onchain could unlock a market far larger than today’s roughly $30 billion tokenized asset sector.

“The entire equities and ETF market worldwide is probably like $150 trillion,” Domingo said. “Only if a small percentage of that, like 2% or 3%, moves onchain, it gets you very close to that $5 trillion.”

The comments come as Securitize prepares to go public and seeks to expand its role as one of the largest tokenization providers for institutions, including BlackRock.

While tokenized U.S. Treasuries have emerged as the dominant RWA category over the past two years, Domingo argued that tokenized stocks could become the industry’s next major growth engine. Securitize has announced partnerships with the New York Stock Exchange and transfer agent Computershare aimed at enabling on-chain trading and settlement of equities.

Domingo also drew a distinction between what he considers “real” tokenized equities and the growing number of blockchain-based stock products offered outside the U.S.

“A lot of people that today say that they tokenize equities, they’re not tokenizing equity,” he said, arguing that many offerings rely on derivatives or synthetic structures rather than direct ownership of the underlying shares.

According to Domingo, the long-term goal is for blockchain-based securities to offer the same investor rights as traditional shares while benefiting from instant settlement, 24/7 transferability and deeper integration with decentralized finance.

Domingo maintained that public blockchains, particularly Ethereum, remain the preferred infrastructure for institutional tokenization despite concerns around transparency and compliance. Securitize uses smart contracts to restrict ownership to approved investors while allowing assets to move on permissionless networks.

Looking ahead, Domingo said he expects blockchain-based markets to develop alongside existing financial infrastructure before gradually absorbing a larger share of activity.

“The traditional markets are going to stay,” he said. “We’re going to see a new market emerge in parallel that will run on blockchain rails and be much more efficient.”

Read more: BlackRock-backed tokenization firm Securitize clears key hurdle to go public on NYSE

Solana Institute CEO Kristin Smith has urged the U.S. Senate to preserve developer protections in the CLARITY Act as more than 200 crypto firms and organizations push for the bill to advance before August.

Commenting on the legislation’s progress, Smith said in a June 9 thread on X that the bill has a realistic chance of advancing through the Senate, making it important for lawmakers to preserve protections for open-source developers and blockchain infrastructure providers.

Citing an industry-backed letter, Smith said more than 60 crypto founders and executives, including Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko, urged senators to maintain strong protections for software developers within the bill.

She argued that open-source developers, validators, and non-custodial wallet providers do not take custody of user assets or execute transactions on behalf of customers and therefore should not face the same regulatory treatment as brokers or custodians.

Her remarks come as support for the CLARITY Act grows across the digital asset industry. 

According to crypto advocacy group Stand With Crypto, more than 200 crypto companies and organizations recently sent a separate letter to the Senate urging lawmakers to bring the legislation to a floor vote without delay. The coalition said the bill had already undergone months of bipartisan negotiations and should now proceed to formal debate.

Smith points to separate bill protecting developers

Drawing attention to related legislation, Smith referenced the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act, a bipartisan proposal introduced in January by Senators Cynthia Lummis and Ron Wyden.

According to Smith, the measure would provide legal certainty for software developers and blockchain infrastructure providers that do not control customer funds or transactions. 

Legislative text released alongside the proposal states that the bill seeks to prevent non-custodial developers from being classified as money transmitters solely because they publish software code or maintain network infrastructure.

Smith argued that similar protections should remain part of the CLARITY Act as Senate lawmakers continue reviewing the market structure framework.

Momentum around the legislation has increased in recent weeks. As reported by crypto.news, the House Ways and Means Committee is simultaneously examining seven separate crypto tax proposals covering stablecoins, staking, mining, lending, charitable donations, wash-sale rules, and disclosure requirements while Senate negotiators continue work on market structure legislation.

Industry groups warn the legislative window is narrowing

Pressure to advance the CLARITY Act has also intensified as analysts question how much time remains on the congressional calendar.

Last week, Galaxy Digital head of research Alex Thorn lowered his estimate of the bill becoming law in 2026 to 60%, down from 75% in May. According to Thorn, the legislation must continue moving through the Senate before lawmakers leave Washington for the August recess because election-related activity could limit opportunities for major crypto legislation later in the year.

A separate assessment from JPMorgan, led by managing director Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, reached a similar conclusion. The bank said unresolved disagreements surrounding stablecoin yield provisions and the approach of midterm elections could complicate efforts to secure final approval.

Smith’s position also aligns with recent comments from U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Commissioner Hester Peirce. Speaking at the IC3 Blockchain Camp at Princeton University, Peirce said many blockchain projects involve publishing open-source software, which she described as a protected activity under the First Amendment.

Peirce added that developers should not automatically be treated as financial intermediaries simply because third parties use their code.

The debate comes as SEC Chair Paul Atkins continues reshaping the agency’s approach to digital assets after pledging to move away from the enforcement-focused strategy adopted under previous leadership.

The Better Business Bureau’s (BBB) National Advertising Division (NAD) is referring prediction market platform Kalshi to regulatory authorities after the company declined to participate in an inquiry into its social media advertising practices, adding another layer of scrutiny to the fast-growing event trading platform.

In a statement published Monday, NAD said it will refer the matter to the appropriate regulatory authorities, including relevant state Attorneys General, for possible enforcement action.

The inquiry examined whether Kalshi’s influencers and affiliates clearly disclosed paid relationships in social media promotions and whether the company took adequate steps to comply with Federal Trade Commission endorsement guidelines.

According to the BBB, Kalshi declined to participate in NAD’s voluntary self-regulatory review of its advertising practices. As a result, the organization will also notify the social media platforms where the advertising appeared.

“At issue for NAD was whether material connections between Kalshi and influencers or affiliates were clearly and conspicuously disclosed in social media advertising,” BBB said.

Crypto influencer John Wang joined Kalshi in August.
Source: John Wang on X.com.

Kalshi’s advertising practices have also drawn scrutiny from Media Matters for America, a nonprofit media watchdog organization, which highlighted the platform’s viral marketing campaigns on TikTok and Instagram that promoted prediction trading as a “side hustle.”

Related: Kalshi joins Polymarket in sweeping user bans to head off insider trading

Prediction markets continue rapid growth despite regulatory scrutiny

Social media marketing has fueled Kalshi’s explosive growth, helping the platform attract new users and drive trading volumes tied to real-world events. 

A Kalshi spokesperson told Bloomberg that the company is on track for a $1.5 billion annualized revenue run rate, momentum that helped secure a $1 billion funding round valuing the company at $22 billion.

Kalshi is a leading centralized prediction market platform alongside decentralized rival Polymarket. Source: Bitget Wallet

Despite an ongoing jurisdictional dispute between state regulators and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) over event contracts, as well as allegations of insider trading, prediction markets continue to gain traction among retail and institutional participants.

A May research report from Bernstein argued that the sector is entering an “institutional” era, with analysts citing a block trade executed on Kalshi as evidence of improving liquidity and more efficient price discovery.

“We believe the introduction of block trading and bespoke contracts could expand participation from institutional investors seeking targeted exposure to event risks,” the Bernstein analysts wrote.

Related: Prediction markets legal battles heat up in Minnesota, Rhode Island

TLDR

• White House officials will meet law enforcement groups to address concerns tied to the CLARITY Act.
• Law enforcement representatives argue that a developer protection clause could affect financial crime investigations.
• Senate leaders continue negotiations as they work to secure enough votes for a floor debate.
• More than 200 crypto organizations signed a letter urging lawmakers to advance the bill.
• Senator Cynthia Lummis reaffirmed support and called for passage of the CLARITY Act.

White House officials will meet law enforcement groups on Wednesday to address concerns tied to the CLARITY Act. The meetings focus on specific provisions that agencies believe could affect illicit finance investigations. The discussions come as Senate leaders weigh whether the bill can secure enough votes for floor debate.

Law Enforcement Scrutiny and CLARITY Act Provisions

Administration officials scheduled the sessions after several groups raised objections to a developer protection clause. The clause stems from the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act and seeks to shield certain software developers from liability. However, law enforcement representatives argue that the language could restrict investigative authority in crypto-related cases. They describe the concern as structural and limited to enforcement mechanics.

Sources familiar with the talks told journalist Eleanor Terrett that officials aim to clarify the clause’s scope. The group plans to outline how the language might create legal defenses during financial crime probes. In response, administration representatives intend to gather feedback and explore possible adjustments. The ethics provisions in the bill also remain unresolved and require further negotiation.

Senate Negotiations and Industry Pressure Intensify

The Senate placed the bill on its legislative calendar earlier this month, yet leaders still lack firm commitments for a floor vote. Supporters continue private negotiations following the Senate Banking Committee’s approval in May. Former White House official Patrick Witt said discussions are narrowing the list of open issues. He stated that negotiators continue to work through specific concerns raised by lawmakers.

Senator Cynthia Lummis reaffirmed her support and urged swift passage of the measure. “I did not spend years on this issue to watch another country write the rules that govern the assets Americans invented,” Lummis said. She added, “Let’s pass the Clarity Act.” Her remarks reflect continued backing from key Republican sponsors.

Meanwhile, more than 200 organizations signed a joint letter urging Senate leaders to advance the legislation. The signatories include Coinbase, Ripple, Kraken, Circle, Andreessen Horowitz, and Binance.US. The letter states that the bill would define federal oversight and clarify regulatory responsibilities. Industry representatives argue that clear rules would keep digital asset development inside the United States.

Brad Garlinghouse echoed that position in public comments this week. He stated that lawmakers have an opportunity to establish domestic crypto standards. Negotiators continue discussions as the White House meetings proceed on Wednesday.

FIFA has named Kraken the Official Crypto Exchange Supporter of the FIFA World Cup 2026. FIFA said the partnership will cover crypto awareness, fan engagement, and product experiences across North America and Europe.

The tournament will feature 48 teams, 104 matches, and 16 host cities across three countries.

Kraken partnership covers fan activations

Kraken will use the partnership to introduce football fans to digital asset products and education. FIFA said the agreement will bring fan-first activations to tournament audiences before and during the World Cup. The company will connect those programs to match viewing, football communities, and tournament events.

The FIFA World Cup 2026 will run for seven weeks across North America. FIFA expects more than six billion cumulative viewers during the expanded tournament. The event will include the first 48-team format in World Cup history.

Kraken has operated for more than a decade and serves users in over 190 countries. The exchange will use the tournament platform to present crypto tools to football audiences. The company has not disclosed financial terms for the FIFA agreement.

FIFA links deal to tournament experience

FIFA Chief Business Officer Romy Gai said the partnership fits the organization’s fan experience plans. FIFA has used commercial partnerships to add technology and consumer programs around major tournaments. The Kraken deal adds a crypto exchange partner to the World Cup 2026 sponsorship structure.

Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi described football as a shared global experience. He said the sport brings people together across borders, languages, and cultures. Sethi also said money should work with similar openness through smartphone access.

The partnership will begin public programming around the FIFA World Cup 2026 Countdown Concert on June 10. The concert will take place across several cities as part of tournament preparations. After that event, Kraken plans activations in North America and Europe.

Crypto firms continue sports partnerships

Kraken has already worked with Tottenham Hotspur FC, Atlético de Madrid, and RB Leipzig. The exchange also has a Formula 1 partnership with Atlassian Williams Racing. Those agreements place Kraken across football and motorsport audiences before the World Cup.

The FIFA deal follows other crypto partnerships tied to sports and entertainment. Crypto companies have used teams, leagues, and major events to reach non-trading audiences. In this case, Kraken will focus on education, brand visibility, and product access around football.

FIFA has positioned the 2026 World Cup as its largest tournament by teams and matches. The competition will take place in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Kraken’s World Cup programming starts with the June 10 countdown concert.