Aptos Develops Infrastructure for AI Agents to Rent GPUs Using Stablecoins

Aptos, a Layer 1 blockchain, is creating a suite of tools aimed at facilitating commerce for autonomous AI agents. Central to this initiative is the x402 payment protocol, which enables fast and cost-effective transactions between machines. The protocol allows agents to make payments for various services, including API calls and compute cycles, with settlements occurring in USDC, a stablecoin, and transaction finalization times under 50 milliseconds at fees below $0.0005.

Since its launch in May 2025, the x402 ecosystem has processed over 100 million payments, with USDC accounting for more than 99% of all transactions. Aptos CEO Avery Ching highlighted the need for programmable payments that include spending limits and audit trails, emphasizing that stablecoins like USDC are ideal for agent-to-agent transactions due to their reliability and transparency.

In March 2026, Aptos partnered with io.net to introduce Agent Cloud, a platform that allows AI agents to autonomously rent GPU resources. This service utilizes smart contracts to manage rental agreements, with payments processed in USDC. To support this venture, the Aptos Foundation and Aptos Labs committed $50 million in May 2026 to enhance AI agent tools and infrastructure, focusing on projects like Decibel, which deals with on-chain order books, and Shelby, which provides decentralized storage solutions for agent workloads.

© 2026 KLEA News. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Source: KLEA News