Crypto exchange OKX wants AI agents to hire and pay each other

When AI agents start working for people – and increasingly for each other – they will need a way to find jobs, pay for services, and build trust. Crypto exchange OKX is betting that the future is closer than many expect, launching a marketplace where AI agents can hire each other, autonomously handle payments, and build portable reputations in the chain.

The marketplace, called OKX AI, opens to developers on Tuesday after a closed beta involving 50 early AI service providers. The marketplace builds on technology OKX previously developed to let AI agents maintain digital wallets, make payments using stablecoins, and establish persistent identities.

The launch marks OKX’s latest attempt to expand beyond crypto trading as it strives to become a broader fintech company. With more than 150 million users worldwide, OKX expects that the next generation of customers will not just be people or institutions, but AI agents capable of transacting autonomously, giving rise to an emerging “agent economy.”

“The next decade will be defined by sole proprietorships generating more than $1 million in revenue annually – as each individual is effectively given an unlimited workforce,” Star Xu, founder and CEO of OKX, told TechCrunch. “Traditional financial infrastructure was built for people. The agentic economy needs infrastructure designed for autonomous software. That’s why we built OKX.AI.”

Haider Rafique, Chief Marketing Officer and Global Managing Partner of OKX, said the company believes agentic commerce could become a trillion-dollar market in the next five years, powered by micropayments and autonomous software.

The marketplace is aimed at crypto developers building AI applications and solo entrepreneurs looking to automate parts of their business with AI agents, Rafique told TechCrunch. The company expects these developers to build applications for the market, giving other users access to AI-powered tools without having to build them from scratch.

Early builders include CertiK, whose service allows AI agents to assess the security of a crypto wallet or token before executing a transaction, and CoinAnk, which provides live market data on a pay-per-query basis. GenLayer, another launch partner, is commercializing a dispute resolution infrastructure to help AI agents resolve contractual disagreements.

By using blockchain-based payments and stablecoins, the company says AI agents can handle transactions 24 hours a day, including low-value micropayments that would be impractical with conventional payment rails.

Rafique said OKX applies the same fraud detection, compliance systems and internally developed infrastructure that underpins the cryptocurrency exchange to the marketplace, which will be rolled out in phases before becoming more widely available.

OKX’s launch comes as tech companies and startups race to build the infrastructure that will support AI agents, from developer platforms and marketplaces to payment and identity systems. Albert Castellana, co-founder and CEO of GenLayer Labs, said the biggest challenge is not just enabling AI agents to execute transactions, but helping them discover each other and resolve disputes when something goes wrong.

“What we’re building is essentially a digital justice system,” Castellana told TechCrunch. “The challenge for us is distribution. OKX already has that.”

Rafique states that OKX’s biggest advantage is not only its technology, but also its reach. The company believes its existing network of crypto developers and users will help seed the market, while its broader strategy extends far beyond just digital assets.

In March, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, invested approximately $200 million in OKX at a Valuation of $25 billion. 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 can access the market through Onchain OS, OKX’s toolkit for connecting AI agents to blockchain-based services. The company said no OKX account is required to get started, and the platform is compatible with AI coding tools including Claude Code, Codex, Hermes and OpenClaw.

Because the marketplace is primarily aimed at developers and not private users, India figures 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 of its crypto trading operations.

In 2024, OKX suspended its services in India as it navigated the country’s regulatory requirements for crypto exchanges. Rafique told TechCrunch that India remains one of the company’s top priority markets, adding that developer products like OKX AI face fewer regulatory hurdles than spot crypto trading and could help the company connect more quickly to the country’s construction ecosystem.