Visa’s crypto arm this week unveiled Visa CLI, an experimental command-line interface that lets AI agents initiate same-day card payments. Announced by Cuy Sheffield, head of Visa Crypto Labs, the tool is pitched as a way for agents to “securely pay for what you need as you code” and to perform programmatic card payments “without the pain of API keys,” a common source of credential leakage and security exposure for automated systems.
The release comes amid growing activity to standardize machine-to-machine payments. In May, Coinbase introduced the x402 standard to simplify agent-driven stablecoin payments, and that standard was recently incorporated into a developer toolkit for AI agents from Sam Altman’s World project.
Separately, Tempo — a blockchain project backed by payments firm Stripe — launched its mainnet and a payments protocol designed for AI agents. Tempo described its chain as “purpose-built for payments,” optimized for high-throughput stablecoin transactions that many agent workflows use to transfer value quickly and cheaply. The team argued that as agents become more capable at writing code, coordinating services and executing complex workflows, they increasingly need native ways to transact.
Tempo also announced the Machine Payments Protocol (MPP), an open standard co-developed with Stripe. MPP is intended to provide a consistent, extensible method for agents and services to coordinate payments programmatically while remaining payment-rail agnostic. Tempo and its partners say the standard already supports stablecoins, card payments and other methods; Visa has extended compatibility on its card network, Stripe is supporting cards and wallets, and the crypto fintech Lightspark has connected MPP to Bitcoin’s Lightning Network.
Taken together, the moves signal a push by major payments players to enable automated economic activity on behalf of AI systems. Proponents argue standard, secure rails reduce friction and risk when agents need to buy compute, access services, or settle microtransactions. Critics and security researchers caution that new tooling will require rigorous controls — for identity, authorization, auditing and fraud prevention — to avoid misuse and prevent automated leakage of value or credentials.
The developments reflect a broader trend: as agent capabilities expand, so does demand for reliable, interoperable payment infrastructure that supports both traditional cards and crypto-based rails. Visa CLI, Tempo’s mainnet, and the Machine Payments Protocol are early steps toward that infrastructure, with further integrations and security work likely to follow.