OceanAltOceanAlt

Agent economy map

Line viewProfiles

First the eight steps an agent payment passes through, then the projects on each step. Click a step to jump to that layer; every profile records only facts traceable to a public source. Method: rating methodology.

  1. 012

    Identity

    Who the agent is and who it acts for

  2. 021

    Mandate

    How much it may spend, and on what

  3. 032

    Wallet

    Which account pays and who signs

  4. 043

    Protocol

    How quote, payment and proof are exchanged

  5. 051

    Risk

    Sanctions, AML and policy checks before settlement

  6. 060

    Network

    Which rail clears the money

  7. 070

    Settlement asset

    What asset settles the payment

  8. 080

    Merchant

    How the seller receives and reconciles

Rated grade and weighted scoreListed listed, not ratedInsufficient evidence summary, evidence or verification missingNot graded protocols and rails are not graded
01

Identity & authorization

2

KYA, Agent ID and credential systems: who is paying and which entity is accountable

Skyfire

L2 · 67

Skyfire positions itself as the 'Agent Trust Stack', providing AI agents with verified identity (KYA) and payment credentials (Agentic Wallet) across the open internet, covering the full agentic customer journey from access to login to checkout. Its core offerings include the KYA identity token and an agentic commerce wallet, claiming partnerships with major credit card networks and security/identity providers (e.g., Experian, Akamai, DataDome, Okta, Auth0, Mastercard, Visa) to enable reliable agent operations across more than 60% of the web.

KYAAgent walletPayment credential

Verified 2026-09-05

Sumsub

L2 · 65

Sumsub is a provider of full-stack KYC/AML solutions, with its website showcasing a broad product matrix covering user verification, business verification, monitoring, screening, and AI-driven tools. The site self-describes as a 'Leading Identity Verification Service' and mentions a 2025 G2 Top Pick honor.

AI Agent Verification (agent-to-human binding)KYC/KYBAML monitoring

Verified 2026-09-05

02

Mandates & limits

1

Mandates, spending caps and policy engines that enforce boundaries outside the agent

Catena Labs

Insufficient evidence

Catena Labs is an AI-native fintech company positioning itself as a governance and banking platform for AI agents. Its core proposition is enabling AI agents to handle money safely within the bounds of deterministic policies set by humans, built on three governance pillars: verifiable identity, deterministic policies, and audit trails. The platform offers composable financial capabilities including custody, payments, and treasury. Showcased use cases include global contractor payments, data procurement, vendor settlement, liquidity optimization, and multi-supplier bidding. The platform supports MCP server, API, CLI, and other integration methods, emphasizing human control through a personal agent or web console for policies and approvals.

ACK-IDACK-PayPolicy engineUSD accounts

Verified 2026-09-05

03

Agent wallets

2

Wallets and accounts that hold assets and sign for agents

Skyfire

L2 · 67

Skyfire positions itself as the 'Agent Trust Stack', providing AI agents with verified identity (KYA) and payment credentials (Agentic Wallet) across the open internet, covering the full agentic customer journey from access to login to checkout. Its core offerings include the KYA identity token and an agentic commerce wallet, claiming partnerships with major credit card networks and security/identity providers (e.g., Experian, Akamai, DataDome, Okta, Auth0, Mastercard, Visa) to enable reliable agent operations across more than 60% of the web.

KYAAgent walletPayment credentialMain layer: Identity & authorization

Verified 2026-09-05

Catena Labs

Insufficient evidence

Catena Labs is an AI-native fintech company positioning itself as a governance and banking platform for AI agents. Its core proposition is enabling AI agents to handle money safely within the bounds of deterministic policies set by humans, built on three governance pillars: verifiable identity, deterministic policies, and audit trails. The platform offers composable financial capabilities including custody, payments, and treasury. Showcased use cases include global contractor payments, data procurement, vendor settlement, liquidity optimization, and multi-supplier bidding. The platform supports MCP server, API, CLI, and other integration methods, emphasizing human control through a personal agent or web console for policies and approvals.

ACK-IDACK-PayPolicy engineUSD accountsMain layer: Mandates & limits

Verified 2026-09-05

04

Payment protocols

3

Standards for how agents discover price and initiate payment

Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP)

Not graded

The Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) is an open standard defining an interaction model to connect buyers, their AI agents, and businesses for seamless purchases. The specification is currently maintained by OpenAI and Stripe. The project is public on GitHub with 1.5k stars and 242 forks, including spec, docs, examples, and RFCs.

Live

Verified 2026-08-19

Coinbase x402

Not graded

An HTTP-402-native machine payment protocol. A server responds to an unpaid request with 402 Payment Required and the payment requirements; the agent pays in stablecoins (mainly USDC on Base) and retries with the payment proof; a facilitator verifies and settles. As an open standard, it is now stewarded by the Linux Foundation's x402 Foundation (founding members include Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, Circle, Coinbase).

Live

Verified 2026-08-04

Google AP2 · Agent Payments Protocol

Not graded

A Google-led agent payments protocol. It binds a payment to a user-signed authorized intent using verifiable credentials and 'mandates' (intent mandate, cart mandate), and is payment-method agnostic (cards, stablecoins, etc.). It mainly answers: does this agent have authority to pay, and is it paying the user's real intent.

Live

Verified 2026-08-04

05

Compliance & risk

1

AML, sanctions screening, firewall, audit and accountability before settlement

Sumsub

L2 · 65

Sumsub is a provider of full-stack KYC/AML solutions, with its website showcasing a broad product matrix covering user verification, business verification, monitoring, screening, and AI-driven tools. The site self-describes as a 'Leading Identity Verification Service' and mentions a 2025 G2 Top Pick honor.

AI Agent Verification (agent-to-human binding)KYC/KYBAML monitoringMain layer: Identity & authorization

Verified 2026-09-05

06

Payment networks

No profiles yet

Settlement networks and clearing rails carrying agent payments

07

Stablecoin settlement

No profiles yet

Stablecoins used as settlement assets and their issuers

08

Merchant tools

No profiles yet

Tools that let merchants accept and reconcile agent payments

Beyond the path · ecosystem

Agent marketplaces

No profiles yet

Machine-to-machine markets for data, compute, models

Bank & incumbent pilots

No profiles yet

Agent-payment pilots by banks, card networks and PSPs

Regulators & working groups

No profiles yet

Regulators and standards bodies shaping the rules

Other infrastructure

No profiles yet

Verified infrastructure profiles not yet assigned to a specific layer

Spot a stale or wrong profile? add or correct one →