As AI agents start working for people, and increasingly for each other, they will need ways to find jobs, pay for their services, and build trust. Cryptocurrency exchange OKX is betting the future is closer than many expect, with the launch of a marketplace where AI agents can hire each other, autonomously settle payments, and build portable on-chain reputations.
The marketplace, called OKX AI, opens to developers on Tuesday after a closed beta with 50 initial AI service providers participating. The marketplace builds on OKX technology previously developed to allow AI agents to hold digital wallets, make payments using stablecoins, and establish persistent identities.
The launch marks OKX’s latest effort to become a broader fintech company beyond cryptocurrency trading. With over 150 million users worldwide, OKX is confident that the next generation of customers will not be just people or institutions, but AI agents that can transact autonomously, giving rise to a new “agent economy.”
“The next decade will be defined by one-person businesses with annual revenue exceeding $1 million, because every individual will have a virtually unlimited workforce,” Star Xu, founder and CEO of OKX, told TechCrunch. “Traditional financial infrastructure was built for humans. The agent economy requires an infrastructure designed for autonomous software. This is why we built OKX.AI.”
Haider Rafique, OKX’s chief marketing officer and global managing partner, said he believes “agent commerce” could become a $1 trillion market within the next five years, driven by micropayments and autonomous software.
Rafique told TechCrunch that the market is aimed at cryptocurrency developers building AI applications and individual entrepreneurs looking to automate parts of their business using AI agents. The company expects these developers to build market-ready applications so other users can access AI-based tools without having to build them from scratch.
Among the early builders are CertiK, which provides services that allow AI agents to assess the security of cryptocurrency wallets or tokens before executing trades, and CoinAnk, which provides real-time market data on a pay-per-query basis. Another launch partner, GenLayer, is bringing a dispute resolution infrastructure to the market to enable AI agents to resolve contractual disagreements.
The company says that by using blockchain-based payments and stablecoins, AI agents can settle transactions around the clock, including micropayments, which would not be possible with traditional payment rails.
Rafique said OKX is bringing to the market the same fraud detection, compliance systems and internally developed infrastructure that underpins cryptocurrency exchanges, which will be rolled out in stages before becoming more widely available.
OKX’s launch comes as technology companies and startups race to build the infrastructure to support AI agents, from developer platforms and marketplaces to payments and identity verification systems. Albert Castellana, co-founder and CEO of GenLayer Labs, said the biggest challenge is not simply enabling AI agents to transact, but helping them discover each other and resolve disputes when problems arise.
“What we are building is essentially a digital court system,” Castellana told TechCrunch. “Our challenge is distribution. OKX already has it.”
Rafique argues that OKX’s greatest strength is not just its technology, but its reach. The company believes its existing network of cryptocurrency developers and users will help it pioneer the market, and its broad strategy extends far beyond digital assets.
Last March, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, invested about $200 million in OKX at a valuation of $25 billion. Rafique said the partnership is part of the company’s ambition to “modernize the marketplace” through tokenization, and that OKX AI represents a parallel effort to “modernize money” for the autonomous software era.
Developers access the marketplace through Onchain OS, OKX’s toolkit for connecting AI agents to blockchain-based services. The company said you don’t need an OKX account to get started, and the platform is compatible with AI coding tools including Claude Code, Codex, Hermes, and OpenClaw.
India figures prominently in OKX’s plans as the market targets developers first rather than retail users. The country has emerged as one of the world’s largest hubs for AI and blockchain developers, a community the company hopes to reach even before the broader return of its cryptocurrency trading business.
In 2024, OKX ceased its services in India as it navigated the country’s regulatory requirements for cryptocurrency exchanges. Rafique told TechCrunch that India remains one of the company’s priority markets, adding that developer products like OKX AI have fewer regulatory hurdles than spot cryptocurrency trading and could help the company reconnect with the country’s builder ecosystem faster.
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