Cloudflare Bets Big: Launches NET Dollar Stablecoin for the AI Internet

Global cloud leader Cloudflare ($NET) has stepped into the stablecoin market with a bold new release: NET Dollar, a U.S. dollar-backed digital asset designed to fuel the next generation of AI-driven, agentic Internet.

Unlike traditional stablecoins aimed at trading and DeFi, NET Dollar is built for the web’s infrastructure layer, enabling instant, secure, and programmable payments across borders.

Seamless Global Payments

Cloudflare frames NET Dollar as more than just another stablecoin. With a focus on trusted, transparent, and reliable transactions, it aims to enable payments that work across currencies, geographies, and time zones. For global businesses and AI-powered platforms, the promise is simple: settle payments at Internet speed, without delays or friction.

At its core, NET Dollar functions as a bridge between the traditional financial system and the web’s infrastructure. That makes it a tool for global commerce, not just crypto-native users.

Automated Transactions for AI Agents

One of the most striking features of NET Dollar is its ability to support automated transactions. Cloudflare envisions a future where AI agents can:

• Pay for flights on behalf of a user
• Confirm deliveries and release payments instantly
• Execute micro-purchases without human oversight

This vision ties into the growing movement toward an agentic Internet, where autonomous digital actors interact with services and each other seamlessly. For example, an AI assistant could autonomously pay a small fee to access real-time weather data or settle a subscription charge, all via NET Dollar.

A New Internet Business Model

Cloudflare positions NET Dollar as a cornerstone for a new Internet business model. Instead of ads dominating revenue streams, microtransactions could allow creators, developers, and service providers to monetize their work directly and fairly.

This structure could provide sustainable revenue flows for the expanding AI ecosystem. Imagine a system where every API call, piece of content, or data stream is fairly priced and instantly compensated, powered by the programmable nature of NET Dollar.

Cloudflare’s Edge: $78 Billion in Market Cap

So why does this matter? The stablecoin market is already crowded, with giants like Tether (USDT) and Circle’s USDC commanding massive adoption. Yet Cloudflare, a company valued at nearly $78 billion, brings something different. It isn’t just issuing another trading stablecoin, it’s embedding payments directly into the Internet’s infrastructure layer.

Cloudflare already powers vast portions of the web through CDN, DNS, and network security. By launching its own stablecoin, the company is effectively tying the next evolution of digital payments to the same infrastructure that underpins the Internet itself.

Project x402 and Coinbase Partnership

The NET Dollar launch doesn’t stand alone. Cloudflare is working alongside Coinbase to develop Project x402, a new HTTP standard that integrates payment requests directly into the web protocol. This means payments won’t just be an external feature, they’ll become native to the Internet’s core fabric.

If successful, this could shift the way payments are processed online, allowing websites and AI agents to seamlessly request and send funds without relying on external gateways or intermediaries.

The Scale of Possibility

The scale of Cloudflare’s ambition becomes clearer with some simple math. If we imagine a world with one billion AI agents, each spending an average of $10 per day on data, subscriptions, and services, the result would be:

•  $10 billion in daily transactions
•  Over $3.6 trillion annually

That volume would rival global payment networks and put NET Dollar at the center of an entirely new economy. It’s an optimistic scenario, but one that illustrates the potential if the agentic Internet takes hold.

Challenges Ahead

Of course, this vision won’t be realized overnight. The stablecoin market is crowded, regulatory clarity remains elusive, and the agent infrastructure is still in its infancy. Cloudflare’s dominance in web infrastructure gives it an advantage, but adoption depends on real-world feasibility, reliability, and trust.

For NET Dollar to succeed, it will need to prove not only that it works at scale but that businesses, creators, and everyday users are willing to integrate it into their financial flows.

The crypto and tech community has already started reacting.

Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince shared the announcement on X, sparking discussions about whether this could become a new Internet standard.

Cloudflare’s move into stablecoins with NET Dollar signals a new frontier: payments designed not for traders or DeFi, but for the infrastructure of the Internet itself. By pairing it with Project x402 and Coinbase, Cloudflare is betting on a future where payments are as native to the web as hyperlinks.

If the vision holds, this could reshape how creators get paid, how AI agents operate, and how the Internet itself evolves. But for now, it remains an ambitious experiment, one that could either redefine online payments or join the long list of unfulfilled crypto promises.

Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice. Always do your research before buying any cryptocurrency or investing in any services.

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