$XRP Just Got a Paycheck From Robots 🤖

Ripple has expanded its $XRP Ledger developer kit to let AI agents pay for data, computing and other online services using $XRP and $RLUSD on a payments standard co-authored by Stripe and Tempo. Version 1.1 of the XRPL AI Starter Kit, announced September 17, adds support for the Machine Payments Protocol, or MPP, alongside the Open Wallet Standard, a common interface for software managing wallets across multiple blockchains, according to a RippleX developer post. "Our job is to make $XRP and $RLUSD first-class options wherever developers are building," RippleX head of product Jazzi Cooper wrote on X. $RLUSD is Ripple's dollar-pegged stablecoin. The new release also builds on Ripple's June integration with Coinbase's x402 payment protocol, backing both standards rather than choosing between them.

Under MPP, a service responds to an agent's request with a price, the agent authorizes payment and the service delivers the resource, allowing software that carries out tasks on a user's behalf to settle charges as it works. Stripe and Tempo, a blockchain built for payments, co-authored the protocol. Ripple is among dozens of major companies that recently joined the x402 Foundation, alongside Coinbase and Circle. One-time payments already work with $XRP and XRPL-issued assets such as $RLUSD, while the kit's session-based payment channels, which let an agent deposit funds and authorize spending after each interaction, currently require $XRP. Adding stablecoins to those channels depends on a proposed ledger upgrade, and the payment software remains in beta. Ripple's announcement names no customers using the new MPP integration commercially and provides no payment volume for it.

$XRP passed $1.38 on CoinGecko after a roughly 2% gain over the past week, though the token trades about 54% below its 2021 peak. It last changed hands down 3% over 24 hours after losing the $1.40 level, with 24-hour trading volume of $2.8 billion. The CFTC named $XRP among 18 digital assets in a March designation cited in coverage of the rally. The session feature creates a defined use for $XRP as money set aside to pay for an agent's working session, and backing both x402 and MPP gives developers using either standard a path to accept payments on the $XRP Ledger.