Money for AI - Issue #574 - FinTech Weekly

The Focus

Cloudflare’s announcement of NetDollar, a US dollar-backed stablecoin, reflects a growing realization that the financial system designed for people may not work for machines.

Traditional rails — from card networks to bank transfers — were built around human rhythms: office hours, settlement windows, and the expectation that someone would eventually pick up the phone to resolve a problem. In an AI-driven world, those assumptions collapse. Autonomous agents booking flights, sourcing supplies, or triggering payments will not wait three business days for a settlement. They cannot afford to face a card decline because a system is offline for weekend maintenance.

This is where stablecoins come in. By design, they move at the speed of the internet. If AI agents are to take on more of our financial lives, they will need a medium that can support constant, global, and atomic transactions. NetDollar is Cloudflare’s bet that such a medium must be native to the web, not adapted from legacy banking.

The implications are profound. If financial systems begin to optimize for AI-to-AI transactions, the role of banks and traditional networks may shift from being the backbone of payments to becoming one of several layers in a wider ecosystem. Value could flow differently: microtransactions instead of ad impressions, usage-based payments instead of subscriptions, direct transfers instead of intermediated settlements. That would alter how businesses are funded, how creators are paid, and how economic activity is measured.

For fintech professionals, the challenge is clear: adapt to the logic of autonomous systems or risk being bypassed. Stablecoins like NetDollar may not replace the dollar itself, but they could replace how the dollar is used online.

The deeper question is whether the infrastructure of today’s financial system is prepared for a world where software makes decisions in milliseconds. If it is not, stablecoins may become less of an option and more of a necessity.

Read our full coverage of Cloudflare’s NetDollar and its implications for fintech and AI:

Cloudflare Announces NetDollar Stablecoin for AI-Driven Transactions

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