News linked to both this project and an event.
: Base announced the launch of the Batches 004 accelerator program, which will select 10 startups over an 8-week program, with each receiving $100,000 in investment funded by the Base Ecosystem Fund. Applications close on September 9, and the program will hold Demo Day in New York in November. This round is aimed at pre-seed startups focused on trading, payments, funding, and AI agents, covering products that use stablecoins to support agent shopping, trading, and payments, as well as lending, e-commerce, and decentralized AI infrastructure. Teams may support multiple blockchains but must have Base as their primary network. Selected teams will receive dedicated advisors, weekly support, and exposure assistance within the Base ecosystem, and will present their projects to investors at Demo Day. Coinbase launched Agentic Wallets on Base in February and Coinbase for Agents in June, which respectively enable AI agents to hold USDC and pay via the x402 protocol, and to directly connect to user accounts. (Decrypt)
AEON, focused on the economic settlement layer for AI agents, has announced the completion of an $8 million pre-seed funding round led by YZi Labs, with participation from IDG Capital, HashKey Capital, Stanford Blockchain Builders Fund, and Oak Grove Ventures. AEON stated that it will use these funds to advance the development of its settlement layer tailored for AI agent interactions. The company launched its first AI-powered payment product in May, claiming it connects to over 50 million offline merchants worldwide. Additionally, AEON has partnered with BNB Chain to launch the x402 Facilitator, enabling verifiable transactions, on-chain settlement, and tamper-proof receipts.
Odaily. Bernstein stated in its latest research report that the newly reached compromise on stablecoin yields under the U.S. CLARITY Act is structurally beneficial for Circle and the USDC ecosystem.The report notes that the current version of the bill prohibits stablecoin issuers from paying interest to passive holders that is "economically equivalent" to bank deposits, but allows reward mechanisms tied to actual transaction, payment, and usage activities to continue. Bernstein believes this means Circle's current model, which relies on partners like Coinbase to provide USDC reward programs, will gain regulatory recognition, while also limiting the industry's ability to compete for market share through high yields.Bernstein points out that the bill effectively reinforces the positioning of stablecoins as "payment tools" rather than "deposit substitutes," helping to protect Circle's current business model that relies on reserve income. The firm maintains an "Outperform" rating for Circle with a $190 target price.Data shows that the total global supply of dollar-pegged stablecoins has surpassed $300 billion, with USDT and USDC collectively accounting for approximately 97% of the market share. Bernstein notes that USDC's share in on-chain payments and wallet transfers is steadily increasing, and its share of payments in the AI Agent payment protocol x402 has exceeded 99%.Additionally, Bernstein mentioned that Circle's ARC chain has cumulatively completed 244 million testnet transactions. The ARC token pre-sale previously raised $222 million, with investors including a16z crypto, Apollo Funds, ARK Invest, and BlackRock.However, the report also points out that the CLARITY Act still needs to complete multiple legislative procedures before it takes effect, including a 60-vote threshold in the full Senate and coordination with the House version. Polymarket currently estimates its probability of passage by 2026 at approximately 62%. (The Block)