Goldman Sachs: Circle and USDC Are Moving Beyond the Crypto World, Cross-Border Payments and AI Agents Become the New Battlefield

According to TechFlow Research, minutes from Goldman Sachs' July 5 Circle management meeting indicate that stablecoin growth has decoupled from crypto market cycles, with use cases rapidly expanding towards cross-border payments, consumer e-commerce, capital market settlement, and AI agent payments. USDC accounts for approximately 99% of trading volume in the x402 agent payment protocol. Circle pointed out that the "digital dollarization" trend in emerging markets is accelerating, with USDC becoming a tool to replace local currencies and unreliable banking systems. If passed, Circle believes the CLARITY Act will be a catalyst rather than a headwind; the bill allows issuers to continue revenue sharing to incentivize distribution and encourages usage-based reward mechanisms rather than passive holding.