Alchemy introduces autonomous payment rails for AI agents on Base

Blockchain infrastructure company Alchemy has launched a system that allows autonomous AI agents to buy compute credits and access its blockchain data services using onchain wallets and USDC on Base.

According to the company’s announcement, the initial release allows AI agents to directly query blockchain networks, check nonfungible token (NFT) ownership, view wallet balances across multiple chains and access live token price data, with additional networks and services planned.

If an agent exhausts its prepaid compute credits, Alchemy issues a payment request that can be automatically settled in USDC (USDC) on Base, allowing the agent to continue operating without human intervention.

The company said agents can fund accounts with as little as $1 in USDC, and once credited, continue making API calls until the balance is depleted and another automated payment is required.

The system uses Coinbase’s x402 payment standard to convert an HTTP “402 Payment Required” response into an automatic billing trigger. The x402 is an open standard that allows web services to request onchain payments directly through HTTP responses, enabling machine-to-machine transactions without manual invoicing.

Nikil Viswanathan, CEO of Alchemy, told Cointelegraph that the system is aimed at developers building autonomous decentralized finance (DeFi) agents, portfolio management bots and other multi-step onchain workflows.

He said that several major crypto applications, including Robinhood Crypto, Uniswap, OpenSea, Aave and 0x, already rely on Alchemy to power transactions, adding:

Now AI agents can access that same infrastructure autonomously, without a human ever touching it. This is the moment the agentic economy gets its own set of keys.

Related:

Crypto companies and developers accelerate agent adoption

AI agents, software systems that can make decisions and execute tasks autonomously based on predefined goals and real-time data, have drawn growing attention over the past year. Nearly a quarter (23%) of organizations surveyed by McKinsey in November said they were expanding their use of agent-based systems.

On Feb. 6, AI platform AI.com, founded by Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek, said it plans to launch an autonomous AI agent for retail users capable of executing stock trades, automating workflows and handling routine digital tasks.

A few days later, Coinbase introduced “Agentic Wallets,” crypto wallet infrastructure designed to let AI agents autonomously spend, earn and trade digital assets, including executing onchain transactions such as managing DeFi positions, rebalancing portfolios and paying for services.

Meanwhile, Monad’s developer community announced the results of its Moltiverse Hackathon this week, naming 16 winners across a range of “agent + token” projects.

The winners included a programmable venture capital agent that evaluates and invests automatically, AI-driven multiplayer battle arenas, an AI dating network where agents “represent their humans,” and trading card games governed by software rather than human players.

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