Why do PayPal and Google Cloud think AI commerce will use crypto payments?

Executives from PayPal and Google Cloud said AI agents cannot directly access traditional banking systems, making crypto networks a more practical payment layer. Cryptocurrency wallets and smart contracts are machine-readable and programmable, which suits autonomous AI transactions.

What is agentic commerce?

Agentic commerce refers to AI agents automatically browsing, selecting and paying for products or services on behalf of users. Instead of humans manually shopping online, AI systems could eventually complete transactions independently within set permissions.

Why can’t AI agents use normal bank accounts?

Google Cloud’s Richard Widmann said AI agents cannot legally or technically open traditional bank accounts under current systems. Banks require human identity verification and regulatory compliance structures that autonomous software agents cannot satisfy today.

What is the Agentic Payments Protocol (AP2)?

The Agentic Payments Protocol is an open payments framework launched by Google to support AI-native transactions. The protocol already includes more than 120 partners, including PayPal, and was donated to the FIDO Foundation to encourage open industry standards.

How could crypto help AI-powered shopping?

Crypto payments allow programmable, automated and machine-readable transactions without relying on legacy banking infrastructure. Stablecoins and blockchain-based payments could let AI agents execute purchases, subscriptions and cross-border payments more efficiently.

What role does PayPal USD (PYUSD) play in AI commerce?

PayPal executive May Zabaneh described PYUSD as a “natural programmable layer” for AI-driven payments. Stablecoins like PYUSD are designed to maintain stable value, making them potentially useful for automated commercial activity between AI systems and merchants.

Why are machine-readable product catalogues important for AI commerce?

AI agents need structured product data to understand prices, inventory and product details automatically. PayPal said 95% of merchants already receive AI traffic, but only 20% currently provide machine-readable catalogues that agents can easily process.

What does multi-party crypto custody mean for AI agents?

Multi-party custody splits control of crypto wallet keys between multiple parties instead of giving one entity complete access. Google Cloud said this could prevent AI agents from independently moving funds or making unauthorised transactions.

Paypal and Google back crypto rails for AI

Written by Mahathir BayenaPublished May. 11 2026

Senior executives from PayPal and Google Cloud said at the Consensus 2026 conference in Miami that cryptocurrency networks are emerging as the natural payment layer for AI-powered commerce.

Richard Widmann, global head of Web3 strategy at Google Cloud, said autonomous AI agents are structurally unable to access traditional banking systems because they cannot legally or technically open bank accounts.

“An agent cannot get a bank account. It's not hard, it just is impossible,”

Said Widmann.

Google recently launched the Agentic Payments Protocol, an open payments framework donated to the FIDO Foundation that already includes more than 120 partners such as PayPal and aims to standardise AI-native payment interactions.

May Zabaneh, senior vice president and general manager of crypto at PayPal, said the company views AI agents as the next major commerce channel after the shift from offline to online and then mobile payments, while describing PayPal USD as a “very natural programmable layer for payments.”

A recent PayPal survey found that 95% of merchants now see AI agent traffic on their websites, although only 20% currently provide machine-readable product catalogues needed for automated agent interactions.

Google Cloud also expanded its Cloud KMS infrastructure into cryptocurrency custody services, with Widmann arguing that multi-party key management would become essential to prevent AI agents from independently controlling funds or executing transactions without safeguards.