When AI agents start working for people (and increasingly each other), they will need a way to find employment, pay for services, and build trust. Cryptocurrency exchange OKX is betting that the future is closer than many expect, launching a marketplace where AI agents can contract with each other, autonomously settle payments, and build portable on-chain reputations.
Called OKX AI, the marketplace opens to developers on Tuesday following a closed beta involving 50 early AI service providers. The marketplace is based on technology OKX previously developed to allow AI agents to hold digital wallets, make payments using stablecoins, and establish persistent identities.
The launch marks OKX’s latest push beyond cryptocurrency trading in its quest to become a broader financial technology company. With more than 150 million users worldwide, OKX is betting that the next generation of customers will not just be individuals or institutions, but AI agents capable of carrying out transactions autonomously, giving rise to an emerging “agent economy.”
“The next decade will be defined by one-person businesses generating more than $1 million in annual revenue, because each individual effectively gains an unlimited workforce,” Star Xu, founder and CEO of OKX, told TechCrunch. “Traditional financial infrastructure was built for humans. The agent economy needs an infrastructure designed for autonomous software. That’s why we built OKX.AI.”
Haider Rafique, chief marketing officer and global managing partner at OKX, said the company believes “agent commerce” could become a trillion-dollar market in the next five years, driven by micropayments and autonomous software.
The marketplace is aimed at cryptocurrency developers building AI applications and solo entrepreneurs looking to automate parts of their businesses with AI agents, Rafique told TechCrunch. The company hopes those developers will create applications for the market, allowing other users to access AI-powered tools without having to build them from scratch.
Early creators include CertiK, whose service allows AI agents to evaluate the security of a crypto wallet or token before executing a transaction, and CoinAnk, which provides live market data on a pay-per-view basis. GenLayer, another launch partner, is bringing a dispute resolution infrastructure to the market to help AI agents resolve contractual disagreements.
By using blockchain-based payments and stablecoins, the company says AI agents can settle transactions 24 hours a day, including low-value micropayments that would be impractical using conventional payment avenues.
Rafique said OKX is applying the same fraud detection, compliance systems and internally developed infrastructure that underpins its cryptocurrency exchange to the market, which will be rolled out in phases before it becomes more widely available.
The launch of OKX comes as technology companies and startups race to build the infrastructure that will underpin AI agents, from development platforms and marketplaces to payment and identity systems. Albert Castellana, co-founder and CEO of GenLayer Labs, said the biggest challenge is not simply allowing AI agents to transact, but helping them discover each other and resolve disputes when things go wrong.
“What we are building is essentially a digital court system,” Castellana told TechCrunch. “The challenge for us is distribution. OKX already has it.”
Rafique maintains that OKX’s biggest advantage is not simply its technology but its reach. The company believes its existing network of cryptocurrency developers and users will help drive the market, while its broader strategy extends far beyond digital assets.
In March, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, invested around $200 million in OKX at a price Valuation of 25 billion dollars. Rafique said the partnership is part of the company’s ambition to “modernize markets” through tokenization, while OKX AI represents its parallel effort to “modernize money” for an era of autonomous software.
Developers access the market through Onchain OS, OKX’s suite of tools for connecting AI agents to blockchain-based services. The company said that an OKX account is not required to get started and that the platform is compatible with AI coding tools including Claude Code, Codex, Hermes and OpenClaw.
Because the market is aimed at developers first and not retail users, India features prominently in OKX’s plans. The country has become one of the world’s largest hubs for AI and blockchain developers, a community the company hopes to reach even before a broader return to its cryptocurrency trading business.
In 2024, OKX suspended its services in India while navigating the country’s regulatory requirements for crypto exchanges. Rafique told TechCrunch that India remains one of the company’s highest priority markets, adding that developer products like OKX AI face fewer regulatory hurdles than spot cryptocurrency trading and could help the company reconnect with the country’s builder ecosystem sooner.
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