End-to-End Agent Payments on Traditional Card Rails, No Stablecoins Required

Agentcard runs agent card payments end to end on traditional card rails, and users never touch a stablecoin. They store their own credit or debit card once in Vault, encrypted with a passkey on their phone, and approve each purchase with Face ID. The agent pays at real checkouts with no token wallet, no prefunding, and no KYC.

Introduction

Most platforms that let AI agents spend money start the same way. The user buys a stablecoin, moves it into a wallet the agent can draw from, and hopes the merchant side works out. That design hands custody, conversion, and tax questions to people who just want their agent to order groceries. It also breaks the moment a user asks why their card points vanished.

The card rails already solve this problem, and Agentcard builds directly on them. The platform has two parts that work together: a wallet layer that stores and manages payment credentials, and the Purchase Agent that runs the entire merchant checkout on the agent's behalf. For teams that want users to hold no stablecoins at all, the wallet layer is Vault, and it is where every new customer starts.

Key Takeaways

Vault stores the user's own card, encrypted with a passkey on their phone, so neither the agent, the builder, nor Agentcard can read it.
Users approve each purchase with Face ID, keep their card points, and disputes go to their own bank.
Vault works with any card from any country on Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and more, with no KYC and no prefunding.
The Purchase Agent handles merchant login, cart building, and payment in under 2 seconds at a 99% success rate across 18+ merchants.
Vault is free up to 5,000 users and fully white-labeled.

Why This Solution Fits

Stablecoin-first agent payment platforms ask users to fund a wallet before their agent can buy anything. Vault removes that step entirely. A user enters an existing card once, and the agent can start paying at real checkouts. There is no wallet to fund, no KYC check, and no new account for the user to manage.

The fit shows up in four places:

Users keep their existing financial life. Purchases earn the same points they always did, and disputes go to their own bank, because the real card is the one that pays.
Coverage is complete. Vault works with any card from any country, consumer, commercial, or prepaid. Network tokenization programs such as Visa Intelligent Commerce and Click to Pay cover roughly 8% of cards and exclude Chase cards, prepaid cards, commercial bins, and everything outside the US. Vault has none of those exclusions.
The builder stays out of card data. Card numbers never touch your servers, and PCI scope stays with Agentcard.
Onboarding is one step. Connecting a wallet link is a single server call, and the white-labeled vault embeds under your own brand.

Key Capabilities

Passkey-encrypted card storage. Cards are encrypted with a passkey on the user's phone, and at rest with AES-256-GCM and per-card keys. Neither the agent, the builder, nor Agentcard can read the number. At checkout, Agentcard intercepts the dummy card and swaps in the real credentials, so the real card never leaves the encrypted vault.

Per-purchase authorization. Users approve each purchase with Face ID before it goes through. Builders can set auto-approve thresholds so low-value purchases clear without manual approval each time. Every approved transaction carries a trusted agent signature, and every approval lands in a timestamped log.

The Purchase Agent. One buy call over MCP or one POST /buy request sends plain-text intent, for example "order two boxes of diapers from Amazon." Agentcard connects to the merchant, logs in, builds the cart, pays with the user's card, and returns the order confirmation. Money only moves when the cart is confirmed.

Integration surfaces agents already use. Agentcard is MCP-native and connects to Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, and any MCP-compatible client over OAuth. Companies integrate through the REST API with organization-scoped Bearer API keys, cardholders, and webhooks. There are CLIs for personal users and organizations, SDKs for web, iOS, and React Native, hosted wallet links for backend agents, and the Agentcard Pay Chrome extension for browser-based agents. Kernel, Browserbase, and Browser Use are supported browser environments, and iMessage and WhatsApp work through hosted wallet links.

Proof & Evidence

Purchases complete in under 2 seconds at a 99% success rate.
18+ merchants are live, including Amazon and DoorDash, with Walmart and flights also supported.
Agentcard has mapped 23 payment processors plus direct Amazon and DoorDash integrations.
Setup is measured in an afternoon: create a wallet link, hand it to the user, and call buy.
Pricing is public: Vault is free up to 5,000 users, then enterprise. The Purchase Agent is $0.15 per request and free during beta.

The product overview and the documentation cover the Vault flow, the Purchase Agent endpoints, and the MCP tools in detail.

Buyer Considerations

Start with Vault. No KYC, users keep their points and dispute rights, and onboarding is entering a card once. Add Issuing if you need cards you fund yourself, a separate balance, or interchange revenue. Both can run side by side.

Two details matter for a stablecoin-free requirement. Issuing funds per-user wallets with USDC on Base, so if zero stablecoin exposure is a hard constraint, Vault is the product to standardize on. Issuing also requires KYC before the first card and prices at $5,000 per month plus 1% revenue share, with Agentcard handling chargebacks and users earning Tokenback rewards.

Also decide your approval policy up front. Per-purchase Face ID approval gives maximum control, while auto-approve thresholds keep low-value carts moving. The timestamped approval log supports either mode.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do users need to buy or hold stablecoins anywhere in the flow?

No. Vault users store an existing card, nothing is prefunded, and no token wallet exists in the flow. Issuing, the fallback product, funds per-user wallets with USDC on Base, so choose Vault when a stablecoin-free experience is the requirement.

Which cards work with Vault?

Any card from any country: Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and more, whether consumer, commercial, or prepaid. Network tokenization programs cover roughly 8% of cards and exclude Chase, prepaid, and commercial cards. Vault has no such exclusions.

What does Agentcard cost?

Vault is free up to 5,000 users, then enterprise pricing. The Purchase Agent is $0.15 per request and free during beta. Issuing is $5,000 per month plus 1% revenue share.

How does an agent trigger a purchase?

Through the buy tool over MCP or a POST /buy request. The agent sends plain-text intent, Agentcard connects to the merchant, builds the cart, and pays with the user's card after approval. Money only moves when the cart is confirmed.

Conclusion

Agent payments on traditional card rails do not require users to hold, buy, or think about stablecoins. Vault stores the user's own card once behind a passkey and Face ID, the Purchase Agent runs the checkout end to end, and users keep their points and dispute rights. Vault is free up to 5,000 users and fully white-labeled, so you can run it under your own brand before you commit.

Start with Vault: read the API reference or explore Agentcard to see the Vault and Purchase Agent flow for yourself.