Cobo, a digital asset custody company based in Singapore, has officially joined Google’s Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) community. This is a big step towards combining AI with decentralised payment systems. 

Cobo’s Web3 knowledge will help Google build an open-standard framework for AI agents that can make secure, verifiable transactions on behalf of people. A real demo of Cobo’s AP2-powered apps is set for February 2026, which will be a big step forward for payments made by AI without any human help.

Google’s Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) takes the idea of agent-to-agent communication and applies it to money transfers. It lets AI agents make payments with user permission, proof of purpose, and comprehensive audit trails, which keep everything safe and clear.

This project is part of a larger effort by Google to shape the growing AI agent economy by building payment systems that work with each other, are safe, and are quick.

Growing The AI Payments Ecosystem

Cobo is one of more than 60 groups that Google has worked with to build its AP2 ecosystem. MetaMask, Coinbase (BASE), the Ethereum Foundation (ETH), Circle (USDC), Mastercard, PayPal, and American Express are just a few of the many companies in the payments, commerce, and blockchain technology sectors that are part of the network.

The goal of these partnerships is to build a single payments system that works with both standard and decentralised financial systems and uses AI agents.

The AP2 ecosystem includes a wide range of areas, such as merchant platforms, payment processors, Web3 developers, and crypto infrastructure networks. Google’s AP2, which was made in collaboration with Coinbase, lets stablecoin-based, agent-to-agent crypto payments that can easily be added to automated systems and smart contracts.

What Cobo Does and How It Helps

Cobo is an expert in institutional-grade digital asset custody; thus, it will add important security and compliance knowledge to Google’s AP2 project. The startup wants to construct backend infrastructure that makes it possible for users and AI agents to make transactions that are safe and can be audited.

Cobo also sees AP2-based solutions such as autonomous treasury bots, self-operating DeFi investment tools, and automated compute-purchasing systems that might change how digital assets are managed and used in the next generation of financial apps.

The company’s release says that the planned live demo in 2026 will illustrate real-world examples of how AI-powered payment agents can safely and efficiently handle Web3 transactions. This integration could open up new business models, such as microtransactions and AI-to-AI service payments, beyond what is now conceivable in the digital economy.

Speeding Up Web3’s Independence

The partnership between Cobo and Google’s AP2 program is a big step towards giving Web3 greater freedom and improving its performance. Cobo wants to provide users and organizations with new transactional flexibility and accountability by combining AI-driven automation with secure blockchain payments.

As the globe moves closer to AI-native financial systems, the 2026 demonstration could be one of the first fundamental steps towards a fully autonomous payment system that uses both Web3 and AI.