When AI agents start working for people – and increasingly for each other – they will need a way to find jobs, get paid for their services, and build trust. OKX, a crypto exchange, believes that the future is closer than many people expect, launching a marketplace where AI agents can hire each other, settle payments autonomously, and build portable on-chain reputations.
The marketplace, called OKEx AI, opened to developers on Tuesday after a closed beta involving 50 initial AI service providers. The marketplace is based on technology OKX previously developed to allow AI agents to hold digital wallets, make payments using stable coins, and establish persistent identities.
The launch marks OKEx’s latest effort to move beyond crypto trading as it looks to become a broader fintech company.
With more than 150 million users globally, OKEx is betting that the next generation of customers will not just be people or institutions, but also AI agents able to conduct transactions autonomously, giving rise to an emerging “agent economy.
“The coming decade will be defined by one-person companies that generate more than a million dollars in annual revenue – because each person effectively gains an unlimited workforce,” Star Xu, founder and CEO of OKEx, told TechCrunch. “Traditional financial infrastructure serves humans. The agentic economy needs infrastructure designed for autonomous software. That’s why we built OKX.AI.”
OKEx chief marketing officer and global managing partner Haider Rafiq said the company believes “agent commerce” could become a trillion-dollar market over the next five years, driven by micropayments and autonomous software.
Rafiq told TechCrunch that the marketplace is aimed at crypto developers building AI applications and solo entrepreneurs who want to automate parts of their business with AI agents. The company expects those developers to create applications for the Marketplace, allowing other users to access AI-powered tools without having to build them from scratch.
Among the early builders are CertiK, whose service lets AI agents assess the security of a crypto wallet or token before executing a transaction, and CoinAnk, which provides live market data on a pay-per-query basis. GenLayer, another launch partner, is bringing dispute-resolution infrastructure to market to help AI agents resolve contractual disagreements.
The company says that using blockchain-based payments and stablecoins, AI agents can settle transactions around the clock, including low-value micropayments that would be impractical using traditional payment rails.
Rafiq said OKEx is implementing the same fraud detection, compliance systems and internally developed infrastructure that underpins its cryptocurrency exchange in the market, which will be introduced in phases before becoming more widely available.
OKEx’s launch comes as technology companies and startups race to build the infrastructure that will underpin AI agents, from developer platforms and marketplaces to payments and identity systems. Albert Castellana, co-founder and CEO of GenLayer Labs, said the greatest challenge is not just enabling AI agents to conduct transactions, but also helping them discover each other and resolve disputes when things go wrong.
“What we’re building is essentially a digital court system,” Castellana told TechCrunch. “The challenge for us is distribution. OKX already has that.”
Rafiq argues that OKEx’s biggest advantage is not just its technology but its accessibility. The company believes its existing network of crypto developers and users will help fuel the market, while its broader strategy extends far beyond digital assets.
In March, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, invested approximately $200 million in OKEx, which has a $25 billion valuation. Rafiq said the partnership is part of the company’s ambition to “modernise markets” through tokenisation, while OKEx AI represents a parallel effort to “modernise money” for the age of autonomous software.
Developers access the marketplace through Onchain OS, OKEx’s toolkit for connecting AI agents to blockchain-based services. The company said no OKEx account is required to get started and the platform is compatible with AI coding tools, including Cloud Code, Codex, Hermes, and Openclave.
Since developers rather than retail users primarily target the market, India features prominently in OKEx’s plans. 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 widespread return of its crypto trading business.
In 2024, OKX suspended its services in India as it faced the country’s regulatory requirements for crypto exchanges. Rafiq told TechCrunch that India remains one of the company’s top priority markets, adding that developer products like OKEx AI face fewer regulatory hurdles than spot crypto trading and these initiatives could help the company reconnect with the country’s builder ecosystem sooner.
