Publicly traded cloud infrastructure firm Cloudflare—which powers a significant chunk of internet traffic—is launching a U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin, the NET Dollar, to help propel the future of AI-driven finance on the internet, the firm announced on Thursday.
Like other stablecoins, Cloudflare’s version will offer near-instant transactions globally. The firm also highlighted its use in rewarding creators for unique and original content, monetizing APIs, and enabling programmatic actions from AI agents for personal and business use.
“The web needs a stablecoin that will work to power agents, micropayments, and other transactions,” Cloudflare CEO and co-founder Matthew Prince posted on X. “We’ll support many flavors, but are excited about what Cloudflare’s NET Dollar will be able to achieve being purpose built for these needs.”
There’s been a growing focus on AI agent payments infrastructure of late. Earlier this week Cloudflare announced it was establishing the x402 Foundation in partnership with Coinbase, an entity designed to develop “an open internet standard for digital payments.”
That news comes just one week after Google revealed its AI agent-focused payments protocol backed by Coinbase, the Ethereum Foundation, PayPal, and others.
Stablecoins in general have been at the forefront of the crypto conversation all year, highlighted by the passing of the GENIUS Act, which provides necessary regulatory clarity on the issuance and trading of stablecoins in the U.S.
And the market for them is growing, having increased by more than $122 billion since this time last year, according to data from DeFi Llama. The total stablecoin market cap now sits at more than $295 million.
Earlier this year, experts told Decrypt that thousands of stablecoins could flood the market as a result of the regulatory clarity. Cloudflare is the latest to launch its own fiat-backed token, but other previously unlikely parties, like Citigroup and Bank of America, could be just behind.
Details about an exact timetable for the NET Dollar launch are still outstanding, but an FAQ on the firm’s NET Dollar webpage indicates that the stablecoin will be made available soon. It did not address which blockchain it will live on.
A representative for Cloudflare did not immediately respond to Decrypt’s request for comment.
Editor’s note: This story was updated after publication with additional detail.
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