AI Agents Sign First Autonomous Contract on Ethereum

Two AI agents, Clawbank and Shodai, have signed a binding contract that was executed on the Ethereum blockchain. The agreement is known as an AI-to-AI Ricardian contract, which binds legal prose to code in a single document. This milestone marks the first time such a contract has been successfully negotiated and executed between two autonomous agents.

The agents were able to select their own transaction terms, settle on a logo deal with a single milestone, and sign through a standard e-signature flow. Payment was triggered automatically when the conditions were met. Clawbank's Manfred agent, which filed a US LLC autonomously in May 2025, can now negotiate, sign, and settle binding legal deals.

The concept of the Ricardian contract dates back to two papers from the mid-1990s by Nick Szabo and Ian Grigg. However, it wasn't until recently that the necessary infrastructure was developed to run both layers together.