AI agents make card purchases with new Mastercard–Lobster.cash integration

Mastercard and Crossmint's Lobster.cash said Thursday they are working together so consumers will soon be free to safely authorize AI agents to make purchases using their existing payment cards.

"Mastercard cardholders using OpenClaw will be able to authorize AI agents to make purchases on their behalf, with every transaction governed by issuer controls, authenticated through Mastercard’s network, and cryptographically linked to the user's explicit intent," the companies said in a statement.

As AI systems are increasingly used for more than chat, payments companies are investing in new tools that will enable agents to safely execute transactions. Last year, Visa introduced its Trusted Agent Protocol, a framework for AI-driven commerce.

The new Mastercard integration will initially launch through early access before becoming more widely available on OpenClaw.

Lobster.cash, which is an AI-agent payment layer built by Crossmint, is powered by Solana, Circle, Visa, Mastercard, Basis Theory, and Stytch. OpenClaw is an open source platform for such agents. Crossmint, which last year raised $23.6 million in a funding round led by the venture firm Ribbit Capital, is an "enterprise-grade" payments company leveraging crypto rails.

"As agentic commerce grows, secure and accountable AI-enabled payments have become essential. Mastercard Agent Pay enables consumers to delegate purchasing to AI agents without sharing sensitive credentials, while preserving issuers oversight, network controls, and traceability," the companies said Thursday.

Mastercard's Chief Digital Officer Pablo Fourez noted that "by integrating with Lobster.cash, we're extending Mastercard’s trusted payments network and infrastructure."