Payments giant Visa is opening its Intelligent Commerce platform to businesses worldwide, expanding the infrastructure that allows artificial intelligence (AI) agents to shop, compare, and complete purchases on behalf of consumers and enterprises.

The move comes one week after Visa published its Business-to-AI (B2AI) Report, which found that 53% of U.S. business leaders surveyed would allow AI agents to negotiate prices or terms directly with other AI agents on their behalf. The report also found that 71% of businesses said they are willing to optimize products, offers, and experiences specifically for AI agents, while 77% are already using or piloting AI in their operations.

On the consumer side, nearly 40% of Americans reported making a purchase they normally would not have considered as a result of using an AI agent or tool, an early signal that autonomous systems are actively shaping demand rather than merely filtering it.

Visa’s Intelligent Commerce framework provides a suite of integrated APIs spanning tokenization, authentication, payment instructions, and transaction signals, enabling AI agents to transact securely on behalf of users.

Pilot programs have already been running across multiple regions. In Asia-Pacific and Europe, pilots launched in early 2026, while readiness work is underway in Latin America and the Caribbean. In the Middle East, Visa is working with developer Aldar to allow customers in the United Arab Emirates to use AI agents to pay recurring fees like real estate service charges.

A core component of the framework is the Trusted Agent Protocol, an open framework introduced in October 2025 that helps merchants distinguish between malicious bots and legitimate AI agents acting on behalf of consumers.

Heated Race

Visa’s global push arrives amid intensifying competition over who will control the payment rails for AI agent commerce. Two crypto-native protocols are racing to become foundational infrastructure for AI payments: Coinbase’s x402 standard, which recently moved under Linux Foundation governance with backing from Google, Stripe, and Visa itself, and the Machine Payments Protocol (MPP), launched by Stripe’s Tempo blockchain.

On the crypto front, Visa has been hedging its bets. Visa Crypto Labs launched the CLI tool in March, a command-line payment interface that lets AI agents make payments without API keys or pre-funded accounts — directly targeting the same autonomous agent use cases that crypto protocols are pursuing. The company also expanded its stablecoin collaboration with Bridge in March, with plans to bring stablecoin-linked cards to over 100 countries.

The competing approaches highlight a growing fault line in the industry. Traditional payments players like Visa and Mastercard are building trust layers on top of existing card rails, while crypto proponents argue that blockchain infrastructure is better suited for a world in which AI agents are first-class economic actors.

Visa’s CMO Frank Cooper III framed the company’s vision in terms of its B2AI framework, describing a shift where commerce moves from market-to-human to market-to-machine, with AI agents evaluating, negotiating, and transacting on behalf of people.

This article was written with the assistance of AI workflows. All our stories are curated, edited and fact-checked by a human.

Iran told tanker operators on Wednesday that they must pay bitcoin (BTC) to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.

The use of BTC, mentioned by name by Hamid Hosseini, a spokesman for the country’s oil exporters’ union, ensures payments “can’t be traced or confiscated due to sanctions,” even though the first part of that quote is certainly inaccurate.

Moreover, there will be “a few seconds” to pay, according to the spokesman.

All BTC can be traced on-chain, and the US Treasury has sanctioned Iranian BTC wallet addresses since at least 2018.

Even more embarrassingly, the spokesman claimed that BTC payments will complete within seconds, even though BTC transactions normally require several minutes to settle.

Anyway, Hosseini claims that oil tankers will somehow email Iranian authorities about cargo, submit to an inspection, and then pay a toll of $1 per barrel of oil in BTC.

FT published the news at 8:57am New York time. Whether on that news or for unrelated reasons, BTC rallied from $72,000 to $72,865 within 20 minutes. BTC then retraced that rally entirely, dipping back below $92,000 within half an hour.

Prior to the news last night, BTC rallied substantially, gaining about 6% on ceasefire discussions between the US and Iran.

Iran’s bitcoin rationale is half-right

Although BTC is easy to trace, the unfreezable half of Hosseini’s logic is technically defensible. 

Unlike BTC, most major stablecoins can be frozen. Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic found Iran’s central bank accumulated over $500 million worth of tether (USDT) in 2025. In June of that year, Tether froze $37 million in wallets linked to the central bank. 

In March 2026, Tether froze another $6.7 million tied to IRGC and Houthi-linked networks. 

Unlike BTC which settles over several minutes, USDT can settle within seconds. The stablecoin served as Iran’s preferred oil settlement rail, until Tether started blacklisting its wallets. 

Securitize announced a partnership with Currenc Group (Nasdaq: CURR) to tokenize the company’s ordinary shares on Ethereum and Solana. The move comes as Securitize was recently named the first digital transfer agent in the NYSE’s onchain securities initiative. Tokenized shares will enable 24/7 trading, lower costs, fractional ownership, and DeFi integration.

The partnership represents a continuation of efforts to bring traditional equities onto blockchain infrastructure. Securitize’s designation as a digital transfer agent by the NYSE signals institutional momentum behind onchain securities infrastructure. The tokenization of Currenc Group’s shares demonstrates practical implementation of blockchain-based equity trading for publicly listed companies.

Sources: Securitize (Twitter/X)

This article was generated automatically by The Defiant’s AI news system from publicly available sources.

Zcash (ZEC) rallied after President Donald Trump announced a two-week ceasefire deal with Iran, leading gains in a broader relief rally across global risk markets.

Key takeaways:

• A 2021-style fractal warns ZEC price could fall 40% toward in the coming weeks.

• Over $50 million in long leverage sits below current prices, leaving ZEC exposed to a possible crash.

ZEC rally risks becoming a 2021-style bull trap

The privacy coin rose over 30% in the past 24 hours to $336.50 on Tuesday, its highest level since January. Its top rivals also climbed, with Monero (XMR) up 3% and Dash (DASH) up 8%.

ZEC’s latest rebound is starting to resemble the setup that followed its 2021 peak. Back then, it entered a prolonged bear cycle after peaking near $392.

During this correction, ZEC underwent multiple sharp bounces after testing its 0.238 Fibonacci retracement line at around $85, only to see its upside momentum weakening underneath a descending trendline resistance.

Zcash’s current setup looks similar. Its 0.236 Fib level near $197 is again acting as strong support, while a descending trendline continues to cap upside attempts.

A continued rebound could lift ZEC toward its 0.5 Fibonacci retracement level near $370, which also lines up with the descending trendline resistance.

But the rally could lose steam if bulls fail to break above the trend line, raising the risk of a pullback toward the $197–$200 support zone. In that case, the current move may start to look like the 2021 bull trap setup.

Related: Zcash devs raise $25M from major VCs months after ECC split

Conversely, a decisive breakout above the trendline may trigger a falling wedge breakout setup, with a measured upside target at around $1,200.

In the past, multiple analysts, including BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes and Alphractal CEO and Co-Founder Joao Wedson, have predicted the ZEC price to reach $1,000 or higher.

ZEC liquidation data raises downside risks

Zcash’s liquidation heatmap points to greater downside risk in the coming weeks.

For instance, Binance’s ZEC/USDT contracts may see $3.81 million worth of cumulative short liquidations if the price rallies above $380 in the coming weeks.

In comparison, roughly $50.56 million in cumulative long positions could be wiped out if the price drops below $260.

Markets tend to move toward zones where many leveraged positions are concentrated. In ZEC’s case, the larger concentration sits below the current price, where long liquidations far exceed potential short liquidations above.

The heatmap also highlights $305–$306 as the largest single liquidation pocket, with about $1.76 million in leveraged positions clustered in that range. That makes it an important near-term level to watch.