Circle partners with OpenMind to launch x402 payments for autonomous machines

Circle, one of the major issuers of stablecoins, will partner with OpenMind to launch a new protocol for machine-to-machine transactions. OpenMind will use USDC for micropayments between AI agents. 

Circle will offer its fully regulated USDC stablecoin for microtransactions between AI agents. The payments will be used within the ecosystem of OpenMind, a robotics and AI company. 

Together with Circle, OpenMind will work toward a payment standard for machines in automated or permissionless transactions. 

OpenMind has already signed a tentative cooperation with Coinbase to tap its x402 payment protocol. The company joined Circle, along with AWS, Anthropic, and NEAR, with the goal of building a machine economy, evolving relations and payments between AI agents. 

The x402 standard took off in the past couple of months and was considered a prime candidate for agentic payments and other forms of automation. OpenMind is among the first companies to suggest an explicit use case for its robotics approach to finance.

Circle has already minted over 77.2B USDC, becoming the second most widely used stablecoin. In the past week alone, another 4B tokens were added on various networks, with most flowing into Solana. USDC is among the most active tokens on Ethereum based on daily transaction fees, and a key asset on Solana for DEX trading. 

Circle builds chain-agnostic payment protocol

Circle is working toward its Gateway tool, offering instant transfers for cross-chain USDC transactions. 

The stablecoin issuer is also working on an x402 ecosystem for micropayments, using the Gateway technology. Circle will offer USDC to both EVM and non-EVM chains, with a special focus on Solana. The company will act as a facilitator of token transfers, boosting reliability to offer true agent-to-agent payments. 

‘Circle expects that agentic payments using x402 will increase in popularity, and in particular that x402 may become an attractive protocol for high-throughput applications such as agents performing deep research tasks and paying for content as they go,’ the company announced. 

Agentic payments are still an experimental space, as competitors continue to work toward a common standard. Google Cloud is also working toward a common standard, joining forces with multiple crypto-native companies. 

OpenMind works toward autonomous robots

OpenMind works not only toward AI generation, but also aims to implement its tools through autonomous robots. The company is still in its early stages and has yet to demonstrate the actual usage of USDC. 

OpenMind has attracted an undisclosed seed round led by Amber Group, and another $20M round led by Pantera Capital, raised in August 2025. Pi Network has also invested in the AI and robotics company for an undisclosed sum.

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