Sources: Coinbase and Zerohash are among the companies vying to issue Cloudflare's stablecoin, set to launch this year to support payments for the “agentic web”
Context & Ripple Effects
Cloudflare had already outlined NET Dollar as a US dollar-backed stablecoin for payments tied to the agentic web. The new reporting shifts the story from product intent to a consequential implementation choice: who will operate the issuance layer.
The contest also puts Zerohash's infrastructure position into sharper focus after reports that it was raising capital for crypto and stablecoin infrastructure. Coinbase brings a competing route through an established crypto platform, making issuer selection central to how Cloudflare’s payment initiative is operationalized.
First-order effects
- Coinbase and Zerohash must compete for the role of issuer, while Cloudflare gains leverage to choose the partner and operating model behind its planned stablecoin.
- The eventual issuer would become Cloudflare’s key payments-infrastructure counterpart for the launch, tying its services directly to the company’s agentic-web payment effort.
Second-order effects
- The competition raises the value of issuer capabilities—such as stablecoin administration and integration—among infrastructure vendors seeking enterprise distribution through major internet platforms.
- Other companies pursuing stablecoin-backed payment systems, including Meta’s reported vendor-administered stablecoin plans, may face a more visible contest for capable issuance partners.
Third-order effects
- If large web platforms increasingly delegate issuance to specialist providers, stablecoin infrastructure could consolidate around a small set of regulated, integration-ready operators rather than remain a consumer-crypto product category.
- The pattern would make payment rails a strategic layer of AI-agent services: platform owners may control user access and workflows while partners handle the underlying monetary instrument.
The trend: Stablecoins are moving toward embedded, platform-led payment infrastructure for software agents, with issuance becoming a contested enterprise-service role.