The Agentic Payments Prize.
$50,000 bonus.

What it is

Software is starting to pay for itself. Agents are beginning to hold funds, buy the services they need, and settle up with other agents on their own. Most of it is still demos.

This prize is for the teams making it real.

We're putting an extra $50,000, funded by Circle, behind the startup team that best shows AI agents autonomously making and receiving payments as a working part of a real business. It sits on top of the prizes already offered in the Build with Gemini XPRIZE. One prize. One winner.

Circle is the issuer of USDC and a sponsor of the Moonshots LIVE award event. This is their prize to award, and it rewards builders who take the agentic-payments frontier from concept to something that actually runs.

About Circle

Circle is the issuer of USDC, one of the world's most widely-used regulated stablecoins, and is building the internet financial system for the agentic economy.

Circle's Agent Stack — Agent Wallets, Nanopayments (Gateway), Agent Marketplace, Circle CLI, and Circle Skills — gives builders everything they need to let AI agents hold funds, spend within policy, and settle in USDC on their own.

For the Build with Gemini XPRIZE, Circle is funding and judging this $50,000 bonus prize independently, and is a sponsor of the Moonshots LIVE award event on September 25, 2026 in Los Angeles.

Who it's for

Any team already registered in the Build with Gemini XPRIZE is eligible, in any category. This is an opt-in bonus prize — you don't apply separately, and choosing it doesn't affect your category. You opt in on the submission form and build your agentic payments on Circle's Agent Stack.

Because this is part of the main competition, the base rules still apply, including hosting your project on Google Cloud Platform. The Agentic Payments Prize adds one thing on top: your agents move money on their own, built on Circle.

Eligibility requirement

To be eligible, your project must use Circle's Agent Stack to enable AI agents to autonomously make and/or receive payments. Submissions must include:

• A link to a public GitHub repo verifying the integration.
• A recorded demo of the product executing at least one real, verifiable USDC transaction.
• The agent's Circle wallet address and a clickable block-explorer URL (e.g., Basescan, Arbiscan) as proof of the transaction.

Circle's Agent Stack

Circle's Agent Stack is free to use, and it's the full toolkit for giving an agent its own wallet and letting it pay in USDC:

• Agent Wallets — programmable USDC wallets an agent controls, with spending limits, per-service caps, allowlists, and time-bounded sessions built in.
• Nanopayments (Gateway) — gas-free, sub-cent USDC payments made for the high-frequency, machine-speed transactions agents need.
• Agent Marketplace — a directory where agents discover, evaluate, and pay for services in USDC.
• Circle CLI — an agent-native command line to create wallets, set policies, discover services, and trigger transactions.
• Circle Skills — best-practice patterns for agentic USDC payments, plus Circle's MCP server for the latest SDK and docs.

Building on Google? Start from the Google ADK starter kit: github.com/circlefin/agent-stack-starter-kits. There's also a rich library of demos, integrated services, and example apps at agents.circle.com. Everything you need to build the loop — an agent that holds funds, spends within rules, and settles on its own — is in one stack, with no platform or gas fees.

How to enter

Inside your Build with Gemini XPRIZE submission, opt in and include your proof:

1. Opt in: "Are you submitting for the Circle Agentic Payments Prize?" (yes / no)
2. Proof: the public GitHub repo link, a recorded demo of a real USDC transaction, and your agent's Circle wallet address plus a clickable block-explorer URL.

Because entry is a single submission step, everything judges need must be included. We can't request more after the deadline.

Judging

Circle judges and selects the winner independently, as the domain expert in agentic payments. Moonshots administers the prize as promoter of the competition; Devpost is not involved in this judging. Devpost provides Circle the list of all submissions that opted in; Circle reviews and selects from that list.

Winners are selected on:

• Creativeness & Innovation — how unique is the use case for agentic payments?
• Centrality to Business — are Circle's infrastructure and agentic payments integral to the product's core value, rather than a bolted-on feature?
• Technical Depth & Autonomy — does the agent genuinely execute transactions on its own within set rules, without human intervention?
• Customer Experience — how well does the integration deliver a great experience for the end user?

Timeline

• Prize announced / rules live: week of July 30, 2026 (exact date being confirmed with Devpost)
• Submissions close: with the main competition
• Judging: early–mid September 2026 (Circle reviews the opted-in list)
• Winner announced: the week of the Moonshots Gathering, September 25, 2026, Los Angeles, in Circle's segment of the live program

The rules

• Open to all registered Build with Gemini XPRIZE teams, in any category. Entry is opt-in on the submission form, not the category selection.
• Prize stacking: a project may win one category prize plus this bonus prize. (This updates the standard "one prize per project" rule for the bonus prize only.)
• The project must meet all base competition rules, including Google Cloud Platform hosting and the competition submission deadline.
• To be eligible, the project must use Circle's Agent Stack for agentic payments and submit all three proof items above (public repo, recorded demo, and wallet address + block-explorer URL). Entries missing verifiable proof are not eligible.
• The payment must be genuinely agent-driven. A human manually completing checkout does not qualify.
• Circle judges this prize independently and selects the winner at its discretion within the criteria above. Devpost is not involved in the judging.
• If there are no eligible submissions, the prize is not awarded and the funds return to Circle.
• Standard competition eligibility applies. Employees, contractors, and immediate family of Circle, Google, PHD Moonshots, and XPRIZE are not eligible for this prize.
• Moonshots administers payout, including any required eligibility releases and tax reporting.

The prize

Awarded to one winning team, funded by Circle. Paid out by Moonshots per the competition's standard prize terms.

The Agentic Payments Prize is a bonus award within the Build with Gemini XPRIZE. Google remains the presenting sponsor of the competition. Circle funds and judges this prize independently.

Circle, USDC, and all associated marks are the property of Circle Internet Group, Inc. and/or its affiliates. Used with permission for this partnership.