Circle co-founder, chairman and CEO Jeremy Allaire said during an Aug. 19, 2026, Q2 earnings AMA that stablecoins have established product-market fit in digital assets, digital-dollar savings and cross-border settlement, while AI-agent payments and merchant payments remain major growth opportunities. Circle reported that USDC represented 99.3% of payment volume processed through the x402 agent-payment protocol in the second quarter; Allaire separately said more than 99% of agent payments on protocols such as x402 use USDC. Those figures apply to the cited protocols, not to the entire global AI-payment market. USDC circulation reached $73.3 billion at quarter-end, up 19% year over year, while quarterly onchain transaction volume increased 151% to $14.8 trillion. Circle’s Agent Stack, launched globally in May 2026, supported more than 900 paid services by the end of the second quarter. CPN, Circle’s onchain payment network, had more than 175 participating financial institutions, while EURC circulation exceeded 400 million euros, not $400 million. Arc’s public mainnet remains scheduled for Sept. 16 and will use USDC for gas and fees, with planned privacy capabilities, tokenized-asset support and programmable tools for agentic finance. Allaire said USDC adoption should continue even if the CLARITY Act does not pass in September, citing the GENIUS Act, international regulatory progress and demand across 185 countries.