Google Launches AI Agent Payment Protocol with 120+ Partners Including PayPal

According to CoinDesk, Google Cloud and PayPal executives discussed how cryptocurrency payments will underpin AI Agent-driven commerce. Google Cloud Web3 strategy lead Richard Widmann announced that Google has launched the Agentic Payments Protocol (AP2), donated to the FIDO Foundation, with over 120 partners including PayPal now participating. Widmann noted that AI Agents cannot open traditional bank accounts due to technical and regulatory constraints, making crypto "an excellent machine-readable payment interface."

PayPal's senior vice president of crypto business May Zabaneh stated the company views AI Agents as the next generation of commerce after offline, online, and mobile payments. She highlighted PayPal's PYUSD stablecoin as providing a programmable payment layer for AI-native transactions. According to PayPal's research, 95% of merchant websites currently see AI Agent traffic, yet only 20% have machine-readable product catalogs.