HSBC and Ant Digital Trial AI-Agent Micropayments With Tokenized Deposits

British bank HSBC and Ant Digital Technologies have run a technical trial in which AI agents found digital services and paid for them using tokenized bank deposits. Payments settled in real time on a blockchain testnet. The test linked HSBC’s Tokenised Deposit Service with Ant Digital’s Anvita Flow network, which helps AI agents locate and use services, and with Jovay Testnet, a layer-2 testing environment. In the demonstration, an agent chose a digital service and completed the payment on its own.

Settlement and Risk Checks Explained

HSBC handled settlement and real-time risk checks, while Ant Digital’s network managed service access and payment coordination. The transactions were micropayments, usually defined as anything under $2. Both companies stressed that this was only a technical verification, not a commercial launch or a live offering for customers.

Other Banks Testing AI Agent Payments

HSBC is not alone. In March, Santander completed an AI-agent-initiated payment with Mastercard’s Agent Pay infrastructure, using the bank’s live payment systems. Sygnum, a Swiss digital asset bank, followed in May with AI-driven transactions on a blockchain mainnet, where customers still had to approve and sign each one. CaixaBank also finished an AI-initiated card transaction using Visa Intelligent Commerce and existing merchant systems.

Blockchain and AI Commerce: Citrini Research View

Citrini Research, in an Oct. 8 report titled Breaking The Wall, argued that autonomous agents could raise demand for programmable financial infrastructure. It said traditional systems may need to adapt and that blockchains could offer the always-on rails agents need. The firm wrote that since agents operate programmatically around the clock, it is logical that money and financial assets eventually will too.