Circle Agent Stack already has agent wallets, x402 service discovery, and gas-free sub-cent USDC nanopayments, so machine checkout is becoming table stakes. Catena’s harder wedge is balance-sheet permissioning: which agent can borrow, hedge FX, sweep idle float into T-bills, and prove after the fact that it stayed inside policy. Whoever owns that control layer gets the compliance and telemetry moat while plain hot-wallet agents stay capped at prepaid allowances.

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