Mastercard has released its Six Payment Trends for 2026, forecasting a future where payments become smarter, more personal, and seamlessly connected across traditional and digital platforms. The report highlights how the convergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and cryptocurrency is rapidly reshaping how value is moved, trust is built, and commerce is executed globally.
The overarching theme for 2026 is the evolution of payments into personalized, predictive, and interoperable experiences, driven by infrastructural standards and strategic partnerships.
1. Securing Agentic Commerce
The rise of Generative AI is moving beyond mere recommendations, with AI-powered agents increasingly managing transactions on behalf of consumers and businesses. Mastercard predicts that agentic commerce will expand significantly in 2026. Critical to this growth are the necessary guardrails focused on strengthening authentication, identifying legitimate agents, and establishing clear procedures for capturing intent when an AI transaction goes awry. The industry’s focus remains on ensuring that while commerce is automated, trust is not.
2. Connecting Crypto to Fiat Commerce
Regulatory clarity around stablecoins in the US and Europe has created the confidence needed for commercialisation, moving cryptocurrencies beyond pure investing. In 2026, expect greater collaboration between ecosystem players to make it easier and safer for people to pay and move money with stablecoins. This includes facilitating payouts to stablecoin wallets, enabling stablecoin and Bitcoin purchases on-chain, and streamlining cross-border settlement.
3. Doubling Down on Digital Identity
Amid escalating cybercrime—with 80% of global consumers targeted by a scam in the last year—more robust identity verification tools are essential to the growth of the digital ecosystem. The next year will see the acceleration of digital identity wallets that ease access to financial, government, and other services, including age verification. There will also be an acceleration in creating verified aliases for crypto transactions, eliminating the complex addresses often linked to fraud.
4. Redefining Consumption for the Circular Age
A growing wave of consumers, particularly Gen Z, are embracing the circular economy model, which prioritises reuse, resale, and repair. This trend is creating opportunities for regenerative payment loops, where transactions can enable and incentivise sustainable choices. This includes micro-transactions and secure peer-to-peer payments for refill models, take-back programmes, and deposits for reusable items.
5. Personalizing Payments, Benefits, and Risk
Banking and payments are adapting to the consumer’s financial goals and spending behaviours. This will involve the rise of dynamic tools, such as payment credentials that allow users to set rules (e.g., credit for big purchases, debit for everyday expenses). Furthermore, advanced analytics and permissioned open finance data will allow lenders to better assess the creditworthiness of loan applicants with thin credit files.
6. Enabling the Instant Economy for Everyone, Everywhere
The path toward instant, seamless commerce continues, driven by the acceleration of tokenization globally. In-store checkout may become even more seamless with biometric solutions, while online one-click checkout is within reach by 2030. On the merchant side, Mastercard Transaction Stream, the brand-new processing technology for same-day settlement, is rolling out to free up capital for businesses. Given that global cross-border payments are expected to exceed $250trillion by 2027, continued innovation in transparent, fast cross-border capabilities will be a major area of investment.
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