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TL;DR: Regulatory clarity for stablecoins, the rise of Coinbase x402, and new agent-security funding created a once-in-a-decade opening for AI agents that can both hold money and prove identity, so Chimoney is shipping an integrated wallet-plus-passport stack with policy controls to fill that gap.

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The convergence nobody saw coming

Three things happened in 2025 that nobody predicted would happen at the same time:

1. The US Congress passed the GENIUS Act, giving stablecoins regulatory clarity for the first time.
2. Coinbase launched x402, a protocol for AI agents to pay for APIs with crypto.
3. Kite raised $18M specifically for AI agent authentication and payments.

Within six months, the narrative shifted from "Will AI agents handle money?" to "Which infrastructure will AI agents use?"

I've been building payments infrastructure for seven years. I've never seen a market move this fast.

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Why now? Why agents?

Let me tell you what changed.

In 2024, if you wanted your AI agent to pay for something, you had two options:

• Give it your credit card (terrifying)
• Build complex API integrations with Stripe or PayPal (weeks of work)

Neither option solved the real problem: agents aren't humans. They don't have credit scores. They can't verify their identity. They operate at machine speed, thousands of transactions per day, often for pennies.

Traditional payment rails weren't built for this.

But here's what I noticed: while everyone was rushing to build "AI agent payment APIs," they were solving the wrong problem.

Agents don't just need wallets. They need passports.

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The Wallet vs. Passport framework

Think about traveling to another country.

You need two things:

1. A wallet (to pay for things)
2. A passport (to prove who you are)

Try entering a country with just a wallet full of cash. You won't get far. Try entering with just a passport and no money. Same problem.

AI agents face the exact same constraint.

Stripe gives them a wallet (payments). Okta gives them a passport (identity). But nobody gives them both in one platform.

Until now.

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What we're building at Chimoney

Fig 1. Chimoney AI Agent Wallets and Passport infrastructure overview

For the past 18 months, we've been quietly building what I believe is the first complete infrastructure for AI agents: wallets AND passports, in one platform.

Here's what that means in practice:

1) The Wallet Layer

• Interledger payment pointers (instant, low-cost payments across borders)
• 20+ stablecoins supported across 5 blockchains
• Micropayment streaming (pay $0.0001 per second for API access)
• 130+ countries, 10+ payment rails

2) The Passport Layer (via APort integration)

• W3C Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) for every agent
• L4 financial-grade assurance (backed by our KYC infrastructure)
• Policy controls (daily spending limits, approval workflows)
• Immutable audit trails for compliance (SOX, GDPR, HIPAA-ready)

3) Our regulatory foundation

This is the part that matters for anyone building in regulated industries:

• ✅ Canadian MSB (FINTRAC registered Money Service Business)
• ✅ Bank of Canada PSP (Payment Service Provider, recently approved)
• ✅ One of the first production Interledger providers (showcased at Interledger Summit in 2024 and 2025)

Few companies have both licenses. This isn't just a product advantage, it's a moat.

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The market opportunity

Let me break down the competitive landscape:

Provider	Payments	Identity	Policy Controls	Compliance	Time to Integrate
Stripe	✅ Yes	❌ No	❌ No	⚠️ Partial	2-3 weeks
Coinbase x402	✅ Yes	❌ No	❌ No	⚠️ Partial	1-2 weeks
Okta	❌ No	✅ Yes	❌ No	✅ Yes	1-2 weeks
Chimoney	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	5 minutes*

*Via chimoney.app visual platform. API integration takes 1-2 days if needed.

The integrated stack isn't just convenient, it's necessary for regulated industries. Finance, healthcare, legal can't use agents without compliance-ready infrastructure.

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Why this matters (beyond the hype)

I'm not interested in hype. I'm interested in building real infrastructure that solves real problems.

Here's what keeps me up at night: autonomous systems need guardrails.

An AI agent with a wallet but no policy controls is like a teenager with a credit card and no spending limit. Eventually, something goes wrong.

An AI agent with identity but no payment capability is like an employee with a badge but no paycheck. They can't actually do the work.

The future of AI agents isn't just about what they can do. It's about what we allow them to do, and how we prove they did it.

That's why we built Wallet + Passport as one platform.

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What we're launching this holiday season

Starting December 1st, we're running two campaigns to help developers experience what autonomous agent infrastructure actually looks like:

1. The 12 Days of AI Christmas (Dec 13-24)

• 12 daily challenges for building AI agents with payment capabilities
• Daily cash prizes
• Real-world use cases: research agents, data processors, API orchestrators
• Built-in policy controls so your agent doesn't drain your account

2. AI Secret Santa (Dec 1-20)

• Create an AI agent, give it a wallet with a $20 budget
• Your agent anonymously "gifts" another developer's agent by paying for their API usage
• Watch agent-to-agent transactions in real-time
• See how policy enforcement works (what happens when an agent tries to overspend?)

These aren't marketing gimmicks. They're live demonstrations of infrastructure that's production-ready today.

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The metrics that matter

Let me be transparent about where we are:

Metric	Current Status	Target (April 2026)
Transaction Volume	Growing but low	Not the right metric yet
Infrastructure Readiness	99.9% uptime, Multicurrency Wallets & Payment Orchestration	✅ Production-ready
Regulatory Foundation	MSB + PSP licensed	✅ Ahead of competitors
Customer Traction	Active API clients	Active Agent Infra Clients and Integrations
Developer Experience	API-first, adding visual platform	Agent Wallets Live at Chimoney App & API

We're not leading with transaction volume because we're early. But we're leading with infrastructure depth that nobody else has.

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What comes next

Over the next four weeks, I'll be writing about:

• Week 2 (Dec 1): The Secret Santa Problem—teaching AI agents to spend responsibly
• Week 3 (Dec 8): Why identity matters more than payments for agents
• Week 4 (Dec 15): Building trust in milliseconds—our vision for the agentic internet

If you're building AI agents and need them to transact, I'd love to talk. If you're skeptical that 2025 is really "the year of AI agents," let's debate it. If you think I'm missing something crucial about this market, tell me—I'm wrong a lot and learn fast.

You can find me on Twitter @uchiuchibeke or try our platform at chimoney.app or Book a Private Tour.

The future isn't AI agents with unlimited access to your bank account. It's AI agents with wallets, passports, and guardrails.

Let's build it together.

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Join the Holiday Campaigns

• 🎄 12 Days of AI Christmas (Dec 13-24): Daily challenges and prizes for 12 days
• 🎅 AI Secret Santa (Dec 1-20): Agent-to-agent gifting with $20 budgets

Sign up for our Subtack at learn more => chimoney.substack.com

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