What OceanAlt is and how to call it
OceanAlt is the compliance layer for agent payments: it answers whether a payment should happen, before the money moves.
Screen a payee address with one call, no signup and no API key: GET https://oceanalt.com/api/risk?addr=0x… — returns verdict (clear|caution|risky|uncertain), risk 0-100, language-independent signal_keys, and evidence with source URLs.
Three access levels, all opt-in: anonymous (60/min, no signup, never metered); registered (180/min and 5,000 calls a month free — POST /api/access-keys with an email); KYA (300/min and 50,000 a month free — call with a registered agent credential). Past the allowance it is throttled, never cut off. An unrecognised credential is never silently downgraded: the response says key_rejected and why.
Also available as an npm SDK (oceanalt-aml), an MCP server (npx oceanalt-aml-mcp, registry com.oceanalt/aml), a Telegram bot (@OceanAltTrust_Bot), and an embeddable widget.
The compliance gateway runs 11 gates before settlement: attribution, mandate limits, payee allowlist, AML screening, replay protection and more.
Machine-readable capability list: https://oceanalt.com/.well-known/agent-capabilities — it also states what OceanAlt cannot do.
Important boundary: a verdict of "clear" means nothing was found in the data held, not that an address is safe. Absence of evidence is not evidence of safety.
The future of money will increasingly move through Agents.
OceanAlt — Bringing AI agents safely into the real financial world.
Your agent just paid 186 USDC. How do you know it paid the right party?
186 USDC · 00/11
About to pay
·
What brings you here
Every one of these is live and clickable today.
Screening a payee you don't know
Anyone, at the last step before sending money.
Is this address a scammer, on a sanctions list, or downstream of a mixer?
Handing a spending agent its keys
A developer or platform letting an AI pay, without handing it unlimited authority.
Leaked credentials, prompt injection, a runaway amount, money going to the wrong party.
Protecting readers on your own site
Media, directories and tutorial sites where readers pay addresses shown on the page.
A poisoned page, a fake address in the comments, and a reader who lost money coming back to you.
7 more scenariosCollapse
Cross-border procurement on autopilot
A procurement agent paying overseas suppliers automatically, settled in stablecoins.
A supplier's payout address changed unnoticed, an over-budget order, a duplicate payment same day.
Pre-trade checks in OTC
Over-the-counter trades where a counterparty sends you an address before you move.
Receiving tainted funds, a later exchange freeze, and no answer for where the money came from.
Pay-per-call on x402 or MCP
An agent paying per API call, or your service charging agents.
An unknown counterparty, paying without getting served, or taking in money of unknown origin.
Treasury and multisig pre-flight
A DAO treasury or corporate multisig, after approval and before signing.
A swapped payout address, a sanctioned recipient, discovered only after signing.
Pre-settlement screening for a PSP
A payment gateway or crypto acquirer that needs AML before settlement.
No evidence when a regulator asks, a silent pass when screening fails, an inconsistent verdict.
“Was it listed on the day we paid?”
Compliance or audit, asked after the fact about a historical payment.
Only today's list, nothing that proves the state on the day of payment.
Before you pick an agent-payment protocol
Choosing between x402, AP2, ACP and MPP.
Every site claims to be safe and compliant, with no common yardstick to compare them.
Seven lines, right now
# Ask before you pay: can this payee be paid?
curl "https://oceanalt.com/api/risk?addr=0x8589427373D6D84E98730D7795D8f6f8731FDA16"
# → {"verdict":"risky","risk":100,"blocked":true,
# "signal_keys":["list.mixer"],
# "advice":"Decline. This address is sanctioned…",
# "evidence":[{"url":"https://etherscan.io/address/0x8589…"}]}60/min
5,000/mo
Slows down past the allowance
Industry Insights & Commentary
More →Every piece carries our own read.
Visa and Mastercard Join Ant International on a KYA Interoperability Framework as Agent Identity Standards Begin to Converge
Three payment networks each have their own agent protocols, and now they say they are moving toward common principles. Trusted access for agent payments is shifting from walled gardens to cross-network mutual recognition.
Consumers Use AI Assistants but Won't Hand Over Their Wallets: Visa Data Reveals the Agent Payment Trust Gap
Visa research shows 72% of consumers have used AI assistants, but only 23% trust them to handle payments; trust rises to 61% when a payment brand is involved. Trust is the core bottleneck for agent payment adoption, and the industry is breaking through with brand endorsement and tiered authorization.
SWIFT Doesn't Touch Money: How a Non-Settling Company Sat at the Center of Cross-Border Payments for 50 Years
It holds no funds, bears no credit risk, and competes with no customer. The six things it got right are now replaying in agentic payments.
U.S. Treasury Proposes Bringing Stablecoin Issuers Under AML and Sanctions Framework
The U.S. Treasury's proposed rule would require stablecoin issuers to meet anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance duties, reshaping cross-border settlement and agent payment infrastructure.
Félix Raises $200M Led by a16z: Stablecoin Infrastructure Shifts from Remittances to Agent Economy Settlement
Cross-border remittance platform Félix has closed a $200 million funding round led by a16z, announcing its expansion into stablecoin payment infrastructure. How will this investment reshape the settlement landscape for machine-to-machine payments in the agent economy?
U.S. Congress Holds First Hearing on AI Agent Payment Rules: Authorization, Settlement, and Identity Take Center Stage
In a landmark hearing, the U.S. House Financial Services Committee debated how AI agents should authorize and settle transactions, with Circle, NYSE, and banking representatives clashing over the future regulatory framework.
Latest intelligence
- Visa Executive: India's Next Digital Payments Phase Will Move Toward Trusted AI Agentic Commerce
- Singapore Banks' AI Scaling Debate Heats Up for 2027
- PayPal Pushes Agentic Payments: Can It Unlock the Next Growth Curve?
- AI Safety Standards Debate Can Learn from Payments Industry: Anthropic, Google, OpenAI Discuss Industry Audit Body
- Mastercard CFO: Stablecoins and Value-Added Services Drive Growth, AI Agent Commerce Becomes New Battleground
Standards & trust
From the framework to ratings and the trusted registry to runnable experiments. Every item is checkable.
Put a compliance firewall in front of your agent
Register an agent, set its mandate (limits / allowlist / purpose), let every gate rule on a payment before settlement, and wire in x402 preflight and address screening, all from one entry.
Responsible Agentic Payments
Seven pillars: attribution, mandate, firewall, AML, auditability, privacy, interoperability.
Protocol ratings
Protocols rated by a public methodology, published before the rankings.
Trusted registry
Registered services and their compliance status.
KYA | Know Your Agent
An agent's identity, operator, mandate and revocation, enforced before money leaves.
Experiments & evidence
The agentic payments map
An agent payment moves through 5 core stages. Click through for the full 8-node agent economy map. Open the full map →
Contact & subscribe
See all →Subscribe to the OceanAlt Brief
One email a week: deep signal on agentic payments, stablecoins, and cross-border capital. Bilingual.