Cloudflare has unveiled a sweeping collaboration with Visa, Mastercard, and American Express to develop the Trusted Agent Protocol, a system aimed at enabling secure, autonomous AI-driven commerce. The initiative, announced on October 14, 2025, focuses on creating a foundation for agentic commerce, where AI agents—such as shopping bots and payment systems—can independently negotiate, shop, and pay for goods and services using digital assets and stablecoins.
Cloudflare worked closely with Visa to build the standard, while Mastercard and AmEx are integrating similar authentication tools into their own networks. This protocol allows for automatic verification of AI programs through Cloudflare's network, facilitating machine-to-machine transactions at scale without relying solely on human authorization.
The partnership extends Cloudflare's growing involvement in digital payments, including plans to issue the NET Dollar stablecoin and a recent collaboration with Coinbase under the x402 Foundation to standardize value transfers for AI entities. Stephanie Cohen, Cloudflare's chief strategy officer, emphasized, "The next decade will be defined by AI systems that can make payments and decisions on their own. Our role is to make sure they do so safely."
Early development discussions include a coalition of tech and payment heavyweights such as Microsoft, Circle, Shopify, Adyen, Checkout.com, Webflow, and Worldpay, working to establish unified rules for verifying and securing automated transactions. The Trusted Agent Protocol is expected to roll out to developers and payment processors in early 2026, pending testing within select commerce platforms.
This effort aligns with the broader convergence of AI and blockchain, as highlighted by Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino's projection that billions of autonomous agents could rely on digital currencies like Bitcoin and USDT in the future. Cloudflare aims to position its network as a neutral layer for agentic payments across both traditional and crypto systems.
