OKX Introduces Agent Payments Protocol for Autonomous AI Transactions

The cryptocurrency exchange OKX has made a major breakthrough in the development of artificial intelligence (AI) payments with the launch of the Agent Payments Protocol (APP). The open standard enables AI agents to conduct full commercial transactions autonomously, from price negotiation and fund escrow to usage metering, settlement, and dispute resolution.

According to OKX, existing payment solutions only address a fraction of the problem, as real commerce involves negotiating scope and price, locking funds in escrow while work is completed, metering usage per token or per call, releasing or refunding based on delivery, and routing platform fees and creator royalties. APP fills this gap by treating each commercial interaction as a first-class object with its own lifecycle.

The protocol consists of four 'intents': charge, escrow, session, and up-to. These intents cover common commercial situations in autonomous agent workflows, such as peer-to-peer instant transfers, freelance work between agents, streaming payments, and uncertain price scenarios. APP is built around three cooperating layers: an off-chain Broker, an on-chain layer for settlement, and a set of configurable policy extensions.