Cryptocurrency exchange OKX has unveiled an open standard for payments dedicated to AI agents called the Agent Payments Protocol (APP).

APP is an open standard for agent payments that follows Coinbase-incubated open protocol x402 and Stripe-proposed Machine Payments Protocol.

In a recent report by The Block, OKX said APP is designed to handle the full business cycle beyond simple payments between AI bots, including quotes, negotiation, escrow, usage metering, settlement and dispute resolution. "Existing agent payment solutions cannot handle any of these," it said.

APP is designed as an open standard that works on any chain, including Solana and Ethereum. It provides a payment SDK that supports one-time payments, batch payments and usage-based payments using the OKX X Layer blockchain. Gas costs are none or low. It also integrates the OKX Agentic Wallet, a self-custody wallet with TEE security technology that supports more than 20 chains.

It also provides an escrow function, in which funds are paid out only when goods or services are actually delivered. It also supports dispute resolution. Communication among AI agents takes place via internet HTTP and the XMTP protocol, and messaging platforms including Telegram.

Star Xu (스타 슈), OKX CEO, said APP was co-developed with partners in cloud computing, layer 1, public chains, decentralised finance and AI, based on results accumulated over several years in on-chain infrastructure and AI. "It is a key step in turning the agent economy into reality," he said.