Mastercard boosts agentic commerce, adds crypto network

• Key insights: Mastercard has expanded its use of agentic commerce and has recruited cryptocurrency firms for an advisory council. 
• What's at stake: Payment firms and banks are working on strategies for both agentic AI and digital assets. 
• Forward look: Mastercard will work with firms to build new payment use cases for cryptocurrency. 

Mastercard made moves this week to bolster cryptocurrency and agentic commerce, two vital pieces of its diversification strategy.

The card network has completed a test of an authenticated agentic payment in Malaysia, adding to Mastercard's goal to sell authentic artificial intelligence, which executes transactions with little or no human interaction. At the same time, the card network launched the Mastercard Crypto Partner Program, a global initiative that includes more than 85 cryptocurrency companies, payment firms and financial institutions that will network and collaborate on digital asset technology.

The two releases are part of Mastercard's value-added services, an effort to draw revenue from sources beyond card payments. This line item has been gradually increasing, with revenue totaling $13.3 billion in 2025, up from $9.2 billion in 2023, a sizable portion of the company's overall revenue for those three years of $32.7 billion and $25 billion, respectively.

Mastercard has focused on incorporating value-added service into "new payment flows," which refers to digital innovation such as crypto and agentic commerce and "creating a more seamless payment experience via technology," William Blair analysts said in a research note.

One cog of that strategy is agentic commerce, which refers to using agentic AI to perform shopping, payments and other functions. Mastercard this week partnered with Malaysian financial institutions including CIMB Group Holdings, Malayan Banking and RHB Banking Group, which used Mastercard Agent Pay to perform a transaction involving AI agents. An AI agent booked a ride from Kuala Lumpur International Airport to KL Sentral, Malaysia's largest transport hub.

"Mastercard's first live agentic transaction in Malaysia demonstrates how AI can engage in commerce responsibly. With Agent Pay, we're embedding trust, authentication and transparency directly into AI‑driven payments," Beena Pothen, country manager for Malaysia at Mastercard, said in a release. Elsewhere, Mastercard is testing other types of agentic commerce in Australia, New Zealand and India.

"At its core, agentic commerce uses AI to create a more seamless commerce experience for merchants and consumers," William Blair analysts said.

Mastercard and Visa have both launched agentic commerce services as part of a strategy to deploy the technology globally. Mastercard's products include Mastercard Agent Pay, an agentic payments program, and Agentic Tokens, a security protocol that leans on Mastercard's established tokenization capabilities to secure mobile contactless payments, secure card-on-file, and programmable payments such as recurring expenses and subscriptions.

Supporting and selling products to cryptocurrency issuers is a second strategic goal. Mastercard and Visa have both ramped up their investments in cryptocurrency. Mastercard and Visa do not issue their own crypto or stablecoins, but have said they will support payments over their merchant networks. Much of this work involves making cryptocurrency easier to adopt for non-cryptocurrency users. Mastercard's new crypto partner program includes firms such as Binance, BitGo, Circle, Crypto.com, Marqeta, MoonPay, Paxos and others. 

These firms will work with Mastercard on design and direction of future products and services, including how digital assets can work with established card rails and global commerce flows. These firms will be able to sell these products to issuers and merchants on Mastercard's network.