Building the Financial Rails for the Agentic Economy

In 2026, Circle Internet Financial is focusing on developing infrastructure to support an emerging agentic economy, where autonomous agents replace traditional user-driven interfaces. Nikhil Chandhok, Circle's Chief Product and Technology Officer, discusses this transition on the Tokenized podcast, highlighting how the internet is shifting from ad-supported models to systems where microtransactions are facilitated by stablecoins like USDC and EURC. This change allows for seamless, fractional transactions, enabling the creation of agentic endpoints that can operate globally and continuously. Circle is advancing this vision through initiatives like the Arc public testnet and a multi-protocol approach to ensure cross-chain interoperability, aiming to establish USDC as a universal payment asset. The company seeks to lead in this new economic era by providing trusted digital assets, purpose-built network infrastructure, and promoting open programmability for agents to solve problems autonomously.