Tom Kushner Alchemy has launched a new system on Base enabling AI agents to autonomously pay for blockchain data and compute services in USDC, accelerating the rise of onchain agent economies.
Alchemy launches autonomous payment rails on Base for AI agents
Alchemy has unveiled a new system on Base that enables AI agents to autonomously manage blockchain payments using USDC, marking a pivotal advancement in the growing agentic economy. This innovation establishes autonomous payment rails for AI agents, allowing them to interact with blockchain infrastructure in real time and perform transactions without human assistance.
The move represents a major step toward a self-sustaining ecosystem where AI-powered systems can buy compute credits, access onchain data, and maintain operations continuously. With autonomous payment rails for AI agents now active on Base, developers can design systems that handle blockchain transactions, balance tracking, and data queries on their own using programmable wallets funded directly in USDC.
How autonomous payment rails redefine blockchain operations
Alchemy’s new payment architecture is built to enable AI-driven systems to perform the same blockchain actions that human developers traditionally handle manually. Using Base and Coinbase’s x402 payment standard, AI agents can automatically trigger payments when compute credits are depleted. The process is entirely onchain, ensuring that these systems remain fully decentralized and transparent.
With as little as $1 in USDC, an agent can activate its account and continue making API calls until funds are exhausted. When the balance runs low, Alchemy’s payment request protocol automatically settles another transaction in USDC, ensuring uninterrupted service.
This design removes the need for human monitoring, creating a closed payment feedback loop. Agents can continuously access blockchain data, query NFT ownership, fetch wallet balances, and track live token prices. The seamless automation transforms how applications interact with decentralized infrastructure, opening the door to new levels of efficiency and autonomy.
Alchemy’s role in advancing the agentic economy
Nikil Viswanathan, Alchemy’s cofounder and CEO, emphasized that the system provides developers with tools to create truly independent onchain entities. By integrating autonomous payment rails for AI agents on Base, Alchemy gives developers a way to connect blockchain automation directly to intelligent machine workflows.
The company’s infrastructure is already used by some of the most influential crypto projects, including Uniswap, OpenSea, Aave, Robinhood Crypto, and 0x. Now, with the same robust backend available to autonomous agents, the next evolution of decentralized systems may operate entirely without human involvement.
Viswanathan described this release as a milestone moment, symbolizing how blockchain and AI can converge into a new agentic economy where autonomous systems transact, invest, and interact across digital ecosystems.
Broader industry momentum toward AI autonomy
The launch of autonomous payment rails for AI agents aligns with a broader movement across the crypto and AI industries. According to a McKinsey report, nearly a quarter of organizations surveyed in late 2025 are expanding their use of agent-based technologies, signaling rising confidence in machine-led decision-making.
This trend has been reinforced by a wave of new AI-powered projects. Earlier this month, AI.com—founded by Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek—revealed plans to introduce an autonomous agent designed for retail users. The platform aims to automate stock trading, workflow optimization, and other digital operations.
Coinbase also recently introduced “Agentic Wallets,” a crypto wallet infrastructure designed to empower AI agents to autonomously trade, earn, and spend digital assets. These wallets can manage DeFi portfolios, rebalance positions, and execute payments without human action.
The broader developer ecosystem is also experimenting rapidly. Monad’s community hackathon, Moltiverse, showcased projects blending tokens with autonomous agent behavior from venture capital bots that invest automatically to AI-driven gaming environments where virtual agents represent human players.
The rise of onchain intelligence
Alchemy’s deployment of autonomous payment rails for AI agents on Base signals a fundamental evolution in the blockchain landscape. By merging machine intelligence with decentralized finance infrastructure, this system paves the way for self-operating ecosystems capable of managing both logic and liquidity.
As more developers integrate autonomous agents into blockchain applications, the agentic economy will likely become a defining trend of the coming decade. These agents could soon handle everything from DeFi portfolio management to NFT valuation and liquidity provisioning, while maintaining transparent, verifiable records onchain.
Alchemy’s initiative positions Base as one of the most forward-looking environments for AI and blockchain convergence. With machine-to-machine payments now operational, the boundary between code and economy is starting to disappear.
Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards.
