Alchemy adds Mastercard credentials to AgentCard, bridging AI agents to card rails

Why it matters

Alchemy is using card networks as the distribution layer for agentic commerce while keeping stablecoins in the stack, a practical hedge as payment standards for AI agents remain unsettled.

Nikil Viswanathan (@nikil), the co-founder and CEO of Alchemy, is giving software agents another route into the human economy: one-time-use Mastercard credentials that work at online merchants already equipped to accept cards.

Alchemy announced the integration on September 17th, adding Mastercard Agent Pay support to AgentCard, its identity and payments product for AI agents. AgentCard provisions an agent with an email address, phone number, stablecoin wallet and payment credentials. Alchemy says a developer can complete the initial setup through a command-line interface in under a minute.

The pitch is simple: agents are gaining the technical ability to search, compare and make decisions, yet most online checkout systems still expect a person with an email address, phone number and card. AgentCard packages those missing pieces so an agent can order food, book travel or manage subscriptions within spending limits set by its user.

For Viswanathan and co-founder Joe Lau, now Alchemy's president, AgentCard marks a widening of the infrastructure thesis they have pursued since founding Alchemy in 2017. Both studied computer science at Stanford. Viswanathan previously worked on products at Google, Microsoft and Facebook, while Lau served as Alchemy's CTO before focusing on financial institutions, payments and settlement infrastructure.

Their original bet centered on supplying dependable developer infrastructure for blockchain applications. AgentCard applies the same picks-and-shovels approach to AI agents, with conventional cards sitting alongside the onchain tools Alchemy already knows how to operate.

A wallet for machines, with a card attached

AgentCard's Mastercard credentials are tokenized, intended for one-time use and linked to a user's existing Mastercard, according to Alchemy. The structure is designed to preserve the underlying card's credit line, rewards and other benefits without requiring a separate account for the agent.

Users and card issuers can constrain spending through transaction limits, merchant categories and geographic rules. According to AgentCard's site, the product is designed to support Mastercard's Verifiable Intent framework, allowing each payment to carry approved details such as the merchant and amount.

Such approval data could carry much of the burden if agentic shopping moves beyond controlled demonstrations. Merchants, issuers and consumers need to distinguish an approved purchase from an agent that misunderstood a request, exceeded a budget or selected the wrong product. Verifiable Intent is Mastercard's proposed evidence layer for that problem, though Alchemy's announcement does not spell out how disputes, chargebacks or conflicting instructions will be handled in practice.

"AI agents are quickly moving from simple assistants to software that can take action for people," Viswanathan said in Alchemy's announcement. He said agents need a trusted way to pay, prove authorization and remain inside user-defined limits.

The stablecoin wallet handles the other side of Alchemy's strategy. It lets agents interact with emerging payment protocols built for software, while Mastercard credentials cover the vast inventory of online merchants still running on card rails. AgentCard effectively gives developers a fallback: use programmable payment networks where available and reach for a card credential where they are not.

That bridge is the product's clearest advantage. An agent limited to crypto-native merchants has little utility for everyday commerce. An agent confined to cards inherits systems built around human checkout sessions and relatively infrequent purchases. Alchemy is trying to support both without asking developers to assemble identity, wallets and card issuance separately.

Alchemy is collecting networks

Mastercard is Alchemy's second major card-network integration in three months. AgentCard launched with Visa Intelligent Commerce on June 18th, using Visa payment tokens alongside an email address, phone number and crypto wallet.

Adding Mastercard reduces AgentCard's dependence on a single network and gives Alchemy a stronger case when selling developers on one integration for agent identity and spending. It also shows how early standards remain. Card networks, payment processors, wallet providers and AI platforms are each trying to establish where authorization should live and who controls the transaction record.

Mastercard is spreading its own bets. Mastercard named Alchemy among more than 30 initial participants in Agent Pay for Machines, alongside Adyen, Cloudflare, Coinbase, Crossmint, Skyfire and Stripe. That broad partner list makes clear that Alchemy has no exclusive lane. Mastercard wants Agent Pay embedded across as many agent platforms and payment providers as possible.

Alchemy's position rests on its developer distribution and onchain infrastructure. Alchemy says its broader platform serves over 150,000 teams and supports more than 100 blockchains, figures that have not been independently audited. AgentCard-specific customer counts, payment volume and revenue remain undefined in the launch materials. AgentCard's pricing page lists "$0 to get started" and "No subscription," and says users fund each card as they use it.

A second act after the Web3 funding boom

Alchemy has ample venture backing for the expansion. The founders raised a $250 million Series C at a $3.5 billion valuation in 2021, led by Andreessen Horowitz. In 2022, Alchemy announced another $200 million at a $10.2 billion valuation, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Silver Lake, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue, Addition, Pantera Capital and DFJ.

Those rounds financed Alchemy as blockchain infrastructure. AgentCard gives the same technical base a route into a wider market, where developers building agents need wallets, identity, permissions and payment access regardless of whether end users care about blockchains.

Viswanathan and Lau are betting that onchain settlement will eventually suit software agents better than payment systems designed for people. Their immediate product decision is pragmatic: agents need to transact with merchants that exist today. Visa and Mastercard credentials provide that reach while stablecoin protocols develop.

Alchemy describes AgentCard as available through AgentCard.ai, including a ready-made consumer experience and integration options for businesses. The commercial test begins after provisioning. Alchemy must show that people will delegate purchases, that issuers will trust its controls and that developers can resolve the mistakes autonomous software will inevitably make.

The integration moves Alchemy closer to the harder work: proving an agent can carry a card without creating a new category of payment dispute.