Stripe Sessions 2026: AI Agents, Global Payments, and the Invisible Crypto Infrastructure

Author: Stripe

Translation: Jiahui, ChainCatcher

Today, we officially release 288 product updates aimed at accelerating AI enterprise growth, helping traditional businesses adapt to AI, combating fraudsters stealing token assets, and empowering intelligent agents to become independent economic entities. Here are the core highlights:

Payments

We have partnered with Meta and Google to expand the Agentic Commerce Suite; launched the Link proxy wallet, allowing intelligent agents to securely complete payments on behalf of users; and introduced the Checkout Studio, an all-in-one platform for building, analyzing, and optimizing checkout flows.

Intelligent Agent E-commerce

• Platform-based businesses can now access the Intelligent Agent E-commerce Suite: merchants upload product catalogs and manage agent access permissions in Stripe Dashboard to conduct sales via AI-powered agents.
• In cooperation with Meta, support for users to complete checkout directly within Facebook ads.
• Through new collaborations between Stripe and Google, consumers will soon be able to purchase merchant products directly within Google AI Mode and Gemini apps via the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP).

Link Payment Wallet

• Link proxy wallets can securely authorize intelligent agents to make purchases on your behalf, with payment credentials kept confidential throughout the process, and each transaction requiring manual confirmation.
• US businesses now support receiving Brazil Pix instant payments and stablecoin payments via Link; Indian UPI payments will be available soon.
• A new Link-specific data dashboard has been added to the backend, visually showing Link’s actual impact on conversion rates, authorization success rates, and payment costs.

Optimized Checkout Suite

• Preview of Checkout Studio: a one-stop configuration, analysis, and optimization platform for omnichannel checkout pages.
• Stripe Checkout introduces a new embedded form.
• Adaptive Pricing feature launched, supporting localized subscription pricing based on regions.

Stripe Offline Payment Terminals (Terminal)

• Launch of the new Stripe Reader T600: equipped with an 8-inch customer display, supporting customized checkout experiences via preloaded or custom applications, covering scenarios like membership benefits and upselling.
• Offline payment terminals now available in 15 new markets, including Hong Kong and Mexico.

Stripe Managed Payments

• Managed Payments fully launched. Based on the official Merchant of Record compliance model, businesses can sell digital products in 195 countries and regions, with Stripe handling tax reporting, fraud prevention, transaction disputes, and after-sales support.

Smart Fraud Prevention Radar

Millions of businesses worldwide use Radar to combat fraud, including leading AI companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, ElevenLabs, Cursor, and multinational groups like Pepsi and Hertz.

This release features the largest-ever upgrade to Radar, adding protections against new threats such as token abuse and account fraud, extending coverage inside and outside the Stripe platform, and significantly improving dispute win rates.

• Free trial of abuse prevention features: accurately identify high-risk abuse behaviors without harming normal users.
• Stripe Signals: detect fraud across on-site and off-site channels.
• Early detection of malicious pay-as-you-go fee evasion and bulk multi-account abuse.
• Fraud prevention coverage for all payment methods: bank debit, e-wallets, Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL), and stablecoins.
• Support for custom Radar models trained on a business’s own data.
• Intelligent dispute evidence collection: AI automatically recommends additional evidence (shipping logs, user activity logs, etc.) to improve dispute win rates.

Revenue Management

The intelligent agent economy requires a new underlying architecture for real-time measurement, pricing, alerts, and payments. We have upgraded the Revenue Management Suite to support AI-native business models with streaming real-time payments; enhanced the programmability of Stripe Billing; and expanded real-time query data interfaces.

• Integration with Metronome and Tempo for streaming payments: value delivery triggers immediate collection, costs are settled as they occur.
• Announcing three new Billing customization capabilities: programmable subscription invoice styles, cost-sharing rules, and logic for balance and points deductions.
• Preview of Stripe Database: a managed read-only Postgres real-time database, easily activated via backend or CLI, to accelerate development and deployment.

Capital Management

New capital management features previewed: supporting fund storage, spending, and investment; launching Stripe CashBack debit cards, free transfers between Stripe businesses; and opening Treasury API MCP support for developers to build custom financial agents.

Stripe Funds Vault

• By the end of the year, US and UK businesses will support 15 types of currency assets.
• Free real-time transfers between Stripe businesses within the US.
• US merchants can now apply for co-branded Mastercard Stripe bank cards to spend settled earnings, earning 2% cashback.
• Vault balances can accrue Stripe points, directly offsetting payment processing fees.
• Stripe App mobile supports real-time account balance, transaction history, card details, and spending records.
• Support for stablecoin storage and settlement in Australia and Canada by year-end; 41 additional markets added.
• Vault balances will soon integrate with Privy non-custodial wallets, covering over 150 countries for cross-border instant transfers.
• Dedicated financial accounts for intelligent agents: support balance inquiries, bill payments, fund storage, card issuance, and cash flow management, with key operations requiring manual confirmation.
• Expansion of global payouts: covering 100+ countries with fiat currencies and 160+ countries with stablecoins.

Embedded Finance

Stripe Connect has empowered over 16,000 platform businesses, including Shopify, DoorDash, and Substack, collectively enabling 11 million merchants to accept payments.

Against the backdrop of AI-redefined software industries, we introduce new growth tools that generate actionable operational insights from platform data, supporting revenue expansion via Treasury and Stripe Capital.

Stripe Connect

• Growth Studio preview launched: backend AI-generated operational recommendations to expand product offerings and accelerate growth.
• Enable Smart Disputes: automatically gather and submit dispute evidence for merchants.
• Enhanced risk control: provide each business and transaction with a 0-100 fraud score, AI explains account flags, and offers a comprehensive view of account activity.
• Preview of marketplace platform issuing prepaid debit cards, supporting direct spending from buyer and seller accounts.

Platform-Focused Stripe Treasury

• Soon support embedding components with minimal code to quickly open vault accounts and payment cards for platform users.
• Preview of several new platform-exclusive Treasury features.

Platform-Focused Stripe Capital

• Credit services now available for France and Germany; launching soon in Australia and Canada.
• Preview of revolving credit lines allowing merchants to borrow and repay within approved limits.

Stripe Issuing (Card Issuance)

• Launch of intelligent agent exclusive card issuance: businesses and platforms can programmatically issue one-time virtual cards supporting autonomous procurement and automated financial workflows.
• Preview of instant onboarding for personal and agent entity cards, with self-service setup, standardized templates, and real-time fund settlement.
• Soon support for consumer debit card issuance, including prepaid benefit cards, payroll cards, and branded cards.

Stablecoins and Cryptocurrencies

Stablecoins and cryptocurrencies are driving faster, cheaper global fund flows.

This release, in partnership with Privy, introduces a simplified API for managing multi-chain asset balances; expands Bridge’s Open Issuance capabilities for enterprises to independently issue and operate stablecoins; and launches stablecoin-linked bank cards enabling global spending.

• Support for stablecoin payments in 32 new countries and regions.
• Hold, transfer, and spend stablecoin assets directly within Stripe Dashboard.
• Stablecoins can be transferred to 160 countries; domestic transfers via Link wallet within the US.
• Preview of US enterprise access to Stripe’s Crypto Onramp, supporting web/mobile deployment, custom stablecoin issuance, and simplified KYC for transactions under $500.
• 30 countries support issuing personal/business stablecoins linked to bank cards for global spending.
• Bridge adds currency exchange and settlement for Colombian Peso (COP) and British Pound (GBP); now supports USD, BRL, EUR, MXN.
• Bridge supports cross-chain transfer and storage of stablecoins like USDG, CASH, USDSui, USDCBL.
• Bridge adds fund transfers across Tempo, Plasma, Celo, Sui blockchains.
• Relying on Privy digital asset accounts, holding, transferring, and appreciating stablecoins globally.
• Flexible custody options: choose between custodial or self-custodial per wallet.
• Idle asset yield: connect to Morpho DeFi yield vaults for passive income.
• Command-line tools enable instant wallet setup for intelligent agents, with real-time transaction tracking in dedicated backend.

Stripe Platform Ecosystem

As intelligent agents become foundational components for developer-built businesses, Stripe focuses on three main areas: enhancing platform extensibility and programmability via custom objects and underlying tools; providing stable development, integration, and operation tools for intelligent agents; and introducing new agent data analytics interfaces to help enterprises interpret and implement business decisions.

• Stripe Console launched: an embedded intelligent agent execution environment within merchant dashboards.
• Custom Objects preview: build business data models and logic within Stripe’s system.
• Coming soon: enable application developers to create full-page, multi-tab custom experiences within Stripe Dashboard.
• Stripe Projects: a one-stop platform for configuring hosting services, databases, identity, observability, analytics, AI compute, and unified billing management.