Blockchain infrastructure company Alchemy has launched a system that allows autonomous AI agents to purchase computing credits and access their blockchain data services using onchain wallets and $USDC on Basic.
According to the company’s announcement, the initial release will enable AI agents to directly query blockchain networks, check non-fungible token (NFT) ownership, view wallet balances across multiple chains, and access live token price data, with additional networks and services planned.
When an agent uses up their prepaid compute credits, Alchemy issues a payment request that can be settled automatically $USDC ($USDC) on the base, allowing the agent to continue operating without human intervention.
The company said agents can fund accounts with as little as $1 $USDCand once the amount has been credited, you can continue making API calls until the balance is depleted and an automatic payment is required again.
The system uses Coinbase’s x402 payment standard to convert a “402 Payment Required” HTTP response into an automatic billing trigger. The x402 is an open standard that allows web services to request onchain payments directly via HTTP responses, enabling machine-to-machine transactions without manual billing.
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 several major crypto applications, including Robinhood Crypto, Uniswap, OpenSea, Aave and 0x, already rely on Alchemy to power transactions, adding:
Now AI agents can autonomously access that same infrastructure, without a human ever touching it. This is the moment when the agentic economy gets its own set of keys.
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Crypto companies and developers are accelerating agent adoption
AI agents, software systems that can autonomously make decisions and perform tasks based on predefined goals and real-time data, have attracted increasing attention in the past year. Nearly a quarter (23%) of organizations surveyed by McKinsey in November said they are expanding their use of agent-based systems.
On February 6, AI platform AI.com, founded by Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek, said it plans to launch an autonomous AI agent for retail users that can conduct stock trading, automate workflows and perform routine digital tasks.
A few days later, Coinbase introduced “Agentic Wallets,” a crypto wallet infrastructure designed to let AI agents autonomously issue, earn, and trade digital assets, including executing on-chain transactions such as managing DeFi positions, rebalancing portfolios, and paying for services.
Meanwhile, the Monad developer community this week announced the results of the Moltiverse Hackathon, naming 16 winners in a series of “agent + token” projects.
Winners included a programmable venture capital agent that automatically evaluates and invests, AI-driven multiplayer battle arenas, an AI dating network where agents “represent their people” and trading card games controlled by software instead of human players.
Source: Monad Developers
Magazine: Crypto likes Clawdbot/Moltbot, Uber ratings for AI agents: AI Eye