# Why stablecoins

Agents need payments that are programmable, final in seconds, and small enough to be worth automating. USDC on an L2 like Base settles for fractions of a cent — which makes per-call and per-item pricing viable where card fees never were.

Canonical: https://robauto.ai/learn/agentic-commerce-101/6

_Agentic Commerce 101: How Agents Buy and Sell — lesson 6 of 20 (DEFINITION)_

Agents need payments that are programmable, final in seconds, and small enough to be worth automating. USDC on an L2 like Base settles for fractions of a cent — which makes per-call and per-item pricing viable where card fees never were.

Source: [Circle — USDC developer docs](https://developers.circle.com?utm_source=robauto)

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