Alchemy launches AgentCard virtual Visa for AI agents

Alchemy has launched AgentCard, a virtual Visa card and identity solution that lets software agents make tokenized card payments and use crypto when merchants accept it. The product was built through an integration with Visa Intelligent Commerce and is available to developers through a single API.

AgentCard issues virtual cards that default to Visa-issued payment tokens. When merchants and networks support alternative rails, the system can route payments over crypto or agent-focused protocols such as x402 and Stripe’s Machine Payments Protocol. Alchemy says the product is compatible with current card networks and with newer payment protocols designed for automated agents.

Developers set up agents through one API call that returns a Visa payment token and provisions an email address, a phone number and a crypto wallet for each agent. The platform includes spend controls that let teams restrict merchants, set per-transaction limits and enforce budgets. Alchemy says payment routing updates automatically as supporting merchants and networks roll out new rails, without requiring developers to reconfigure agents.

Alchemy provides blockchain infrastructure used by a large share of on-chain activity. The company describes AgentCard as a tool for connecting AI software to real-world payment and identity rails so agents can perform transactions without manual intervention.

The launch comes as other firms introduce products for automated payments. A Tether-backed wallet provider has offered virtual corporate Visa cards for bots to spend USDT. A major card network announced an initiative to support high-volume, always-on transactions between machines. An Ethereum wallet released an agent-focused wallet to give bots access to the Ethereum ecosystem.

Flor Ronsmans De Vry, co-creator of AgentCard, described the setup challenge for developers: “The hardest part of deploying an agent today has nothing to do with intelligence, it is getting the agent set up to actually operate in the world. Whether you're building on OpenAI or Anthropic, AgentCard collapses that setup into one step.”