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Circle Nanopayments Launches on Testnet to Power Gas-Free USDC Transfers for AI Agents

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Brian Armstrong's Bold Prediction: AI Agents Will Soon Dominate Global Financial

TLDR:

  • Circle Nanopayments enables gas-free USDC transfers as small as $0.000001, built on Circle Gateway infrastructure.
  • Batched on-chain settlement bundles thousands of transactions, with Circle covering all gas costs at the settlement layer.
  • The x402-compatible system lets agents pay merchants instantly with no account creation or credit card required.
  • A robot dog autonomously paid for its own recharging in USDC, marking a real-world agentic commerce milestone.

Circle Nanopayments is now live on testnet, enabling gas-free USDC transfers as small as $0.000001. Built on Circle Gateway, the payments primitive is designed for the emerging agentic economy.

It allows developers to build pay-per-call APIs, real-time compute billing, and machine-to-machine payment flows.

Sub-cent transactions, previously unworkable due to high gas fees, are now economically viable at scale. Circle has introduced batch on-chain settlement to remove per-transaction costs entirely for developers.

How Circle Nanopayments Solves the Sub-Cent Problem

Traditional payment rails, built decades ago, were not designed for high-frequency sub-cent transactions at agent scale. Fixed fees and overhead make ultra-small payments unworkable on legacy systems.

Even modern onchain transactions face barriers when settled individually. On low-cost blockchains, fees for a $0.0001 transfer can reach 1,000% to 5,000% of the payment amount.

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Circle Nanopayments resolves this through off-chain aggregation and batched on-chain settlement. Thousands of transactions are bundled into a single onchain batch, reducing each transaction’s gas cost to zero.

Circle covers the on-chain costs at the settlement layer. This lets agents transact nearly instantly, with settlement handled seamlessly in the background.

When an agent initiates a payment, it signs an EIP-3009 authorization message and submits it to the API. The system validates the signature and adjusts the agent’s internal ledger balance accordingly.

The merchant then receives instant confirmation and can release goods or services right away. Actual onchain settlement occurs periodically and does not interrupt the workflow.

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Circle announced the launch on X, noting the system follows the x402 standard. The x402 standard lets any agent pay any merchant without creating an account or adding a credit card.

Circle stated: “The financial rail for the agentic economy is here.” This removes sign-up friction for agents operating across multiple autonomous workflows at once.

Real-World Testing and Supported Chains

Circle Nanopayments was recently tested through a collaboration with OpenMind, an open-source robotics software developer. An autonomous robot dog used the system to pay for its own recharging in USDC.

The robot initiated payment, received near-instant confirmation, and continued operating while settlement ran in the background. This shows early-stage agentic commerce functioning effectively in a real environment.

As of February 2026, the payment system operates on the testnets of 12 blockchain networks. These include Arbitrum, Base, Ethereum, Polygon PoS, Avalanche, Optimism, Sei, Sonic, Unichain, HyperEVM, Arc, and World Chain.

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It works on any Gateway-supported EVM chain, giving developers broad flexibility. Developers can check the official documentation for the most current list of supported networks.

Use cases for this payment primitive cover pay-per-crawl search, real-time compute billing, and autonomous service marketplaces.

Each model depends on the ability to transfer fractions of a cent instantly and without gas fees. The system allows developers to build products around true sub-cent value exchange. Previously, such business models were not economically practical at this scale.

Developers can access the testnet now to build and test sub-cent payment flows in live conditions. The testnet phase gives builders time to validate applications before any mainnet deployment takes place.

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Circle has positioned this as core payments infrastructure for agentic commerce. Each payment carries programmable value with no per-transaction gas cost required from the developer.

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Crypto traders fade 2026 Fed cuts as U.S. unemployment dips, but risk assets hold bid

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Crypto market hit by $521m in 24-hour liquidations

Traders are pricing fewer Fed cuts in 2026 as U.S. unemployment dips to 4.3%, tempering the liquidity story for Bitcoin and Ethereum but not triggering a risk‑asset capitulation.

Derivatives and rates markets have trimmed expectations for how aggressively the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates in 2026, according to Jinshi‑cited pricing data. That shift reflects growing skepticism that inflation will glide back to target quickly enough to justify deep easing, even as nominal policy rates sit at multi‑decade highs. Fewer cuts priced into 2026 effectively mean a higher “terminal” funding cost for leveraged players and a slower normalization of real yields — both headwinds to the kind of explosive liquidity conditions that fueled earlier crypto bull cycles.

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At the same time, the U.S. labor market continues to look stubbornly robust. Jinshi reports that the March unemployment rate ticked down to 4.3%, beating expectations for 4.4% and edging lower from February’s 4.4%. That is hardly a recession print; if anything, it signals that job conditions remain tight enough to keep wage and service‑sector inflation from collapsing, giving the Fed political and analytical cover to hold rates elevated longer. For risk assets, including Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), the combination of a still‑strong labor market and fewer rate cuts priced is a classic “higher for longer” setup: growth isn’t falling off a cliff, but the cheap‑money punch bowl stays out of reach.

Crypto traders react to US data news

For crypto traders, the implications are nuanced rather than outright bearish. A slower, shallower easing cycle tends to compress valuation multiples and cap speculative excess, making it harder for marginal capital to chase high‑beta altcoins with leverage. However, as long as unemployment hovers near 4–4.5% and the economy avoids a hard landing, on‑chain activity and real demand for digital assets can still grind higher, especially in narratives tied to stablecoins, tokenized treasuries and yield‑bearing infrastructure that directly intersect with rates markets. The immediate read‑through: expect less of a “melting‑up” liquidity rally in 2026 and more of a choppy, macro‑sensitive grind, where each shift in Fed‑cut odds and each monthly jobs print becomes a tradable event for both BTC and ETH volatility.

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Trump’s Crypto Czar Role Sits Empty as White House Names Fraud Czar

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The White House no longer has a dedicated crypto policy lead, just days after President Donald Trump gave Vice President JD Vance a new enforcement mandate as “Fraud Czar.”

Trump announced the Vance appointment on Truth Social, directing the vice president to target what he called unprecedented taxpayer fraud in blue states. The move follows David Sacks’ quiet departure from the crypto czar position on March 26.

Sacks Out, No Replacement Coming

Sacks confirmed that he had used up his 130-day limit as a special government employee. The departure was not a resignation or termination. Federal law caps special government employee service at 130 days within a 12-month period.

The White House confirmed it will not appoint a replacement. Sacks transitioned to co-chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), an advisory body that produces recommendations but lacks operational policy authority.

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He joins Mark Zuckerberg, Jensen Huang, and Marc Andreessen on the council.

His exit leaves the CLARITY Act stalled in the Senate and the broader crypto market structure bill unfinished.

Senator Bernie Moreno has warned that if the bill does not reach the Senate floor by May, it risks going dark until after the midterm elections.

Vance Turns to Fraud

Meanwhile, Trump’s “Fraud Czar” designation gives Vance a mandate focused on government spending enforcement.

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Trump named California, Illinois, New York, Minnesota, and Maine as primary targets, claiming recovered funds could balance the federal budget.

Federal raids have already begun in Los Angeles, with arrests tied to $50 million in healthcare fraud.

The two czar roles are unrelated in scope. However, the contrast is notable.

The administration is deploying enforcement resources toward fiscal fraud while leaving the crypto policy seat empty at a critical legislative moment.

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The post Trump’s Crypto Czar Role Sits Empty as White House Names Fraud Czar appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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XRP Price Prediction: Can These 6 Ongoing Developments Save Ripple

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XRP is trading at $1.31, up by 0.9% in the last 24 hours, but price prediction still remains bearish for Ripple coin.

XRP is trading at $1.31, up by 0.9% in the last 24 hours, but price prediction still remains bearish for Ripple coin. Down nearly 30% year-to-date from a $1.88 open, the token is fighting to hold key support while the broader market registers extreme fear. What most traders haven’t priced in yet: a significant engineering overhaul quietly underway inside the XRP Ledger’s core repository.

Denis Angell, an XRPL core developer, outlined six active workstreams on April 2 that are reshaping the ledger’s foundational infrastructure, telemetry, nomenclature, type safety, refactoring, logging, and documentation.

“I’ve never been more excited for the XRP Ledger core development than I am now,” Angell posted, describing the effort as tedious but critical.

The work targets backend reliability and developer experience rather than user-facing features, a distinction that matters for long-term network competitiveness.

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Whether these upgrades translate into price recovery depends entirely on market timing.

Discover: The best crypto to diversify your portfolio with

XRP Price Prediction: $1.40 Before the Next Wave of Selling?

XRP’s current level of $1.31 places it uncomfortably below both major moving averages. The 50-day SMA sits at $1.40–$1.42, acting as immediate overhead resistance. The 200-day SMA at $2.04–$2.07 represents a full recovery target that feels distant given current momentum.

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XRP is trading at $1.31, up by 0.9% in the last 24 hours, but price prediction still remains bearish for Ripple coin.
XRP USD, TradingView

Support is clustered at $1.27–$1.29. That zone is thin. A clean break below it opens a more significant leg down with limited structural floors until the $1.10 range. The Fear and Greed Index reading Fear confirms capitulation sentiment, which historically precedes either a sharp reversal or a final flush.

Analyst consensus points to $2.04 as a potential recovery level by September 2026, achievable, but requiring sustained buying pressure that simply isn’t visible in current volume data.

Discover: The best pre-launch token sales

Bitcoin Hyper Targets Early-Mover Upside as XRP Tests Critical Support

XRP’s -29.6% year-to-date performance raises a legitimate question: at a $1.31 price point and a multi-billion-dollar market cap, how much asymmetric upside actually remains? For traders comfortable with the risk profile of early-stage assets, the calculus looks different at the infrastructure layer.

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Bitcoin Hyper ($HYPER) is positioning itself as a genuinely novel infrastructure play, the first Bitcoin Layer 2 integrating the Solana Virtual Machine, delivering sub-second finality and low-cost smart contract execution while anchored to Bitcoin’s security model.

The presale has raised $32 million at a current price of just $0.013678, with healthy staking rewards available for early participants. The Decentralized Canonical Bridge enables native BTC transfers into the ecosystem, addressing Bitcoin’s longstanding programmability gap without sacrificing its trust layer.

More detail on Bitcoin Hyper is available here.

The post XRP Price Prediction: Can These 6 Ongoing Developments Save Ripple appeared first on Cryptonews.

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Riot Platforms Offloads 3,778 BTC Worth Over $250M

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Brian Armstrong's Bold Prediction: AI Agents Will Soon Dominate Global Financial

TLDR

  • Riot Platforms sold 3,778 Bitcoin for more than $250 million during the first quarter of 2025.
  • The company reduced its total Bitcoin holdings to 15,680 BTC after the sale.
  • Riot Platforms achieved an average selling price of over $76,000 per Bitcoin.
  • The firm has now sold Bitcoin in consecutive quarters after raising nearly $200 million late last year.
  • CEO Jason Les said earlier that sales were intended to fund ongoing growth and operations.

Riot Platforms sold more than $250 million in Bitcoin during the first quarter of 2025. The company confirmed it sold 3,778 BTC at an average price above $76,000. As a result, the firm reduced its total holdings to 15,680 BTC by the end of March.

Riot Platforms Cuts Bitcoin Holdings as Sales Extend Into Second Quarter

Riot Platforms reported that it sold 3,778 Bitcoin during the first quarter of 2025. The company achieved an average sale price above $76,000 per coin. Consequently, it reduced its Bitcoin reserves to 15,680 BTC at quarter’s end. The remaining holdings now carry a market value near $1.04 billion. Bitcoin traded at $66,844 at the time of valuation.

The Colorado-based miner has now sold Bitcoin in consecutive quarters. During November and December, it generated nearly $200 million from Bitcoin sales. The company has not yet disclosed detailed allocation plans for the recent proceeds. A company representative did not respond to a request for comment. However, earlier in 2025, CEO Jason Les addressed the purpose of prior sales.

Les stated that earlier Bitcoin sales aimed to “fund ongoing growth and operations.” He connected those operations to expanding infrastructure and computing capacity. The company outlined these objectives in its latest strategic business update. Riot Platforms has focused on increasing its data center capabilities. It also continues to adjust its capital structure through asset sales.

Riot Platforms Shifts Strategy Toward Data Center Development

Riot Platforms confirmed that it intends to expand beyond traditional Bitcoin mining. The firm stated that it plans to unlock its nearly two-gigawatt power portfolio. It aims to deploy that capacity for high-demand data center infrastructure. Les said, “2025 marked a watershed year for Riot.” He added that the company has transformed its future trajectory.

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The company explained that it previously used most of its power portfolio for Bitcoin mining. Now, it seeks to reallocate that capacity toward data center development. Riot Platforms stated that its long-term goal is “to fully utilize our power portfolio for data center development.” This shift aligns with ongoing operational restructuring. The firm continues to balance mining output with infrastructure planning.

An activist investor, Starboard Value, urged the company to accelerate its transition strategy. Starboard Value stated that the opportunity could add as much as $21 billion to Riot’s valuation. The investor called for a “renewed sense of urgency” in pursuing this plan. Meanwhile, shares of RIOT closed up 2.47% on Thursday. The stock recently traded at $12.86.

Over the past six months, RIOT shares have fallen more than 33%. During the same period, Bitcoin has declined 47% from its all-time high of $126,080. The company continues to report updates through formal filings and public statements. Riot Platforms has not announced further Bitcoin sales beyond the first quarter.

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Kalshi Onboards Ex-Democratic Strategist amid Legal Troubles

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Law, United States, Policy, Kalshi, Prediction Markets

Stephanie Cutter will join the prediction markets company as a policy adviser, having previously worked in Democratic lawmakers’ campaigns.

Predictions market platform Kalshi announced that a former staffer of US President Barack Obama had joined the company as a policy adviser.

In a Thursday notice, Kalshi said Stephanie Cutter would join the prediction markets company from Precision Strategies, a communications firm she co-founded in 2013. Kalshi said the addition of Cutter came as the company planned to “deepen its relationships in DC and across the country.”

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Law, United States, Policy, Kalshi, Prediction Markets
Source: Stephanie Cutter

According to Kalshi co-founder and CEO Tarek Mansour, Cutter’s experience allowed her to “get [the] message to the right people,” highlighting her background in government and politics. The predictions market already has staff with ties to the US government, including the appointment of the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., as a strategic adviser in January 2025, the week before his father took office.

In the last year, Kalshi has come under scrutiny from many US state-level authorities, who have filed lawsuits against the platform and other companies offering event contracts on prediction markets for sports, alleging that they constituted illegal bets.

Under Trump nominee Michael Selig, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has claimed that the agency has the “exclusive jurisdiction” to oversee such markets, filing lawsuits against state gaming regulators.

Related: Polymarket expands into equities and commodities with Pyth price feeds

Lawsuits and proposed legislation

Many Democrats in US Congress have also called for scrutiny into prediction markets after what they called “suspicious trades” related to the country’s invasion of Iran. Although Kalshi and Polymarket announced plans in March to implement guardrails to prevent accounts from using insider information, some lawmakers introduced legislation that could ban politicians from engaging in such bets on prediction markets.

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As of Friday, none of the bills proposed in Congress had been signed into law, and it was unclear what the outcome would be for many of the state-level lawsuits.

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