HSBC and Ant Digital test tokenized deposit payments for AI agents

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HSBC, Ant test AI payment tech

Highlights

HSBC and Ant Digital Technologies tested AI-agent-initiated micropayments under $2 using tokenized deposits on Ant's Anvita Flow and Jovay Testnet blockchain.
The test, limited to technical verification without commercial launch, showcased real-time settlement and risk checks provided by HSBC for digital service selection by AI agents.
Major banks including Santander, Sygnum, and CaixaBank are piloting similar AI payment infrastructures, while research by Citrini highlights blockchain's suitability for continuous, automated finance.

Test links tokenized deposits with AI service access

As reported by Cointelegraph, citing HSBC and Ant Digital Technologies in Friday's announcement, the test combined HSBC's Tokenised Deposit Service with Ant Digital's Anvita Flow network and the Jovay Testnet, a layer-2 blockchain testing environment.

HSBC supplies settlement functions and real-time risk checks, while Ant Digital's network coordinates how AI agents identify and use digital services. In the demonstration, an AI agent selects a digital service and completes a payment using tokenized deposits, with transactions settled in real time on the testnet.

The companies describe the payments as micropayments, typically meaning transactions of less than $2. They add that the exercise is limited to technical verification and does not amount to a commercial launch or a live customer offering.

Banking sector weighs AI payment infrastructure

HSBC is part of a broader group of banks testing whether AI agents can initiate transactions on behalf of customers. In March, Santander completed an AI-agent-initiated payment using Mastercard's Agent Pay infrastructure in a controlled test involving the bank's live payment systems, while Sygnum follows in May with a blockchain mainnet test that still requires customer approval and signatures.

CaixaBank also completes an AI-agent-initiated card transaction using Visa Intelligent Commerce and existing merchant payment systems. At the same time, debate continues over whether traditional banking infrastructure can support always-on automated finance, with Augustus Bank CEO Ferdinand Dabitz arguing in a May interview that legacy clearing systems are built for human operations rather than round-the-clock machine activity.

That debate is extending to market research. In an Oct. 8 report titled Breaking The Wall, Citrini Research says autonomous AI agents could lift demand for programmable financial infrastructure, arguing that blockchain networks may be well suited to support continuous, application-to-application movement of money and financial assets.

In our earlier article on investor interest in AI infrastructure providers, we highlighted how expectations around agentic AI are expanding beyond chips to the companies that build and optimize large computing clusters. We used Penguin Solutions as an example of this shift, noting the view that its expertise in deploying and managing high-performance AI clusters could position it to benefit as demand for agentic AI scales.

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