Ant Group’s blockchain arm unveils platform for AI agents to transact on crypto rails

Ant Digital Technologies, the blockchain division of Chinese conglomerate Ant Group, has unveiled a new platform aimed at enabling AI agents, not humans, to become the main participants in crypto transactions called Anvita.

Unveiled at the company’s Real Up summit in Cannes, Anvita is Ant’s bet on what it calls an “agent-to-agent economy,” where autonomous software programs can hold assets, trade, and make payments with little to no human involvement.

Anvita consists of two main products at its inception. The first, Anvita TaaS (Tokenization-as-a-Service), is focused on tokenizing real-world assets for institutions, including custody and treasury tools. The second, Anvita Flow, is a platform for AI agents to register, find each other, coordinate tasks and settle payments in real time.

“Pure RWA is just the ‘static infrastructure’ of digital assets,” said Zhuoqun Bian, president of blockchain business at Ant Digital Technologies. “The real transformation lies in moving toward an onchain agentic economy, where autonomous agents will not just analyze data — they will hold assets, execute trades, and optimize portfolios.”

Anvita Flow integrates the x402 protocol, developed by Coinbase and Cloudflare, which enables stablecoin payments directly over HTTP. Agents interacting on the platform can complete sub-cent transactions instantly using USDC, removing the need for traditional billing systems, subscriptions or human approval.

The system also includes an Agent Store with modules for data collection, financial analysis and gaming. Developers can list their own agents, and the platform supports major frameworks like OpenClaw and Claude Code, with flexible hosting options.

In practice, the potential extends beyond tokenized assets toward a more active onchain economy. Agents could allocate resources, execute trades, handle services on behalf of users, and settle micro-transactions automatically as they interact.

Ant Digital joins a growing field of companies building infrastructure for AI-driven commerce. Visa and Coinbase have released competing protocols for agent-based payments, with Visa’s Trusted Agent Protocol targeting card-rail checkout and Coinbase’s x402 targeting stablecoin micropayments.

Google unveiled its Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) in September, backed by over 60 organisations. Mastercard acquired stablecoin firm BVNK for $1.8 billion in the largest stablecoin infrastructure deal on record, signaling that traditional payment networks also see blockchain settlement as part of their future.

The Solana Foundation has reported the network already processed over 15 million onchain agent transactions, and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has said he expects agents to surpass humans in transaction volume.

McKinsey has projected that AI agents could mediate $3 trillion to $5 trillion of global consumer commerce by 2030.

Still, usage remains lackluster. The x402 protocol is currently seeing roughly $28,000 in daily volume, much of it from testing, with Artemis analysts flagging roughly half of observed transactions as artificial activity.

Ant Digital’s blockchain, which already supports tokenized assets from various financial institutions, is currently pursuing USDC integration with Circle and applying for stablecoin licences in Hong Kong, Singapore and Luxembourg.