Cybersecurity giant Cloudflare is set to launch its own stablecoin, Net Dollar, for its AI agents. Media reports indicate that Coinbase and crypto infrastructure startup Zerohash are competing to issue a dedicated stablecoin for Cloudflare, expected to launch in 2026. This stablecoin is the same NET Dollar (1:1 pegged to the US dollar) that Cloudflare announced back in September 2025, positioned as a foundational payment tool for the "agentic web." CEO Matthew Prince stated at the time that this was to create a "new business model for the AI-driven internet"—moving away from advertising and towards pay-per-use, allowing AI agents to autonomously browse, negotiate, pay, and transact. 1. Why is a stablecoin needed? 1) Traditional payment systems (Visa/Mastercard) have high fees (1.5%-3.5%) and slow settlement, unable to meet the needs of AI agents for thousands of micro-payments per second (a fraction of a cent). 2) Stablecoins (especially those based on blockchains like Coinbase's BaseChain) have significant advantages: fees below 1 cent, instant settlement, and programmability. Cloudflare, as a top global CDN and cybersecurity company (handling approximately 20% of internet traffic), is naturally well-suited to embed stablecoins into its infrastructure layer, possessing the potential to become a core payment channel in the AI agent economy. 2. The Form of NET Dollar: Last year, Cloudflare partnered with Coinbase to launch the x402 Foundation (an open internet payment standard based on the HTTP 402 protocol), simplifying the process for websites/developers to receive stablecoin payments. This competitive issuance of NET Dollar is an upgraded version of that collaboration. According to the official promotional positioning, NET Dollar is an independently branded stablecoin, with actual issuance and reserve management handled by a third-party professional institution (the winner between Coinbase and Zerohash), while Cloudflare provides branding, traffic integration, payment protocols (x402, etc.), and use cases. If Coinbase wins, NET Dollar will likely be issued on the base chain. 3. Why is Cloudflare launching a stablecoin? What are its advantages? 1) Official Intent: Shifting from an advertising-driven model to a pay-per-use model. For decades, the internet business model has relied on advertising platforms and bank transfers. The next generation of models will be driven by pay-per-use, fractional payments, and microtransactions—which will direct incentives toward truly valuable original content. "NET Dollar aims to enable creators to directly profit from unique content, developers to easily monetize their APIs, and AI companies to fairly compensate content providers (solving the problem of AI models 'freeloading' content). 2) Absolute Dominance in Global Traffic and Edge Networks Cloudflare currently handles approximately 20% of global internet requests, with its CDN network deployed in over 300 cities. Payments can be completed directly at the edge layer, with extremely low latency and massive throughput. Any website that integrates with Cloudflare can support NET Dollar at virtually zero cost—a core competitive advantage. 3) Native Integration with the x402 Protocol (Driven in Collaboration with Coinbase) This is the killer advantage! x402 revives the HTTP 402 "Payment Required" status code, making payments part of a standard HTTP request (as natural as loading a regular webpage). AI agents or developers can implement "request content → automatic payment →" with just one line of code." "Access now." For developers and AI agents, Cloudfare is an indispensable underlying network infrastructure. For faster agent response and lower latency, Cloudfare is the natural first choice, and integrating NET Dollar is easy once connected to Cloudfare. Cloudfare aims to leverage its advantages in edge and CDN networks to promote the widespread adoption of NET Dollar. Agents supporting NET Dollar payments will experience faster speeds and lower latency. This is guaranteed by Cloudfare's CDN network deployed in 300 cities globally—a significant physical advantage. Therefore, from Cloudflare's perspective, the core intention and strategic goal of launching NET Dollar is to upgrade itself from an "internet infrastructure provider" to an "internet financial track provider for the AI era," completely reshaping the internet's business model. This is not simply issuing a stablecoin, but building the underlying payment infrastructure for the upcoming Agentic Web (agent internet/AI intelligent agent internet), seizing the payment foundation of the AI internet, and potentially becoming the de facto payment standard for the AI agent economy. If NET... Dollar's successful integration into its platform will reach millions of developers and businesses, enabling network effects in payments. In the future, scenarios such as AI-assisted shopping, API calls, and content payments may all default to using Cloudflare's stablecoin. For the entire industry, this accelerates the implementation of the machine economy era and solves the last-mile (payment) problem in the AI economy. Of course, this also marks the beginning of fierce competition in AI payments, especially since USDC already has a certain first-mover advantage, and payment giant Stripe (which acquired Bridge) is also actively developing its own strategy. However, Cloudflare appears to have its own core advantages.

Like Cloudflare, many industry giants in this sector are likely to issue their own stablecoins, gaining control and aligning with their strategic goals.

Indeed, no one can resist the temptation of controlling the underlying payment system.