MoonPay has launched the Open Wallet Standard, an MIT-licensed, open-source specification designed to let AI agents hold value, sign transactions, and execute payments across multiple blockchains without exposing private keys.
The standard, announced on March 23, 2026, arrives as autonomous AI agents increasingly interact with crypto infrastructure. Over 340,000 on-chain wallets were held by AI agents in Q1 2026 alone, yet until now every agent framework built its own proprietary key management, creating fragmentation and security vulnerabilities, including private keys stored in plaintext files.
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 MoonPay Global Reach
 20M+
 users across 160+ countries — the payment rail now powering AI agent crypto transactions via the new Open Wallet Standard.
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<h2 id="what-the-open-wallet-standard-actually-does">What the Open Wallet Standard Actually Does</h2>
The Open Wallet Standard (hosted at openwallet.sh) provides a unified specification for AI agents to interact with crypto wallets programmatically. It supports <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/moonpay-open-sources-the-wallet-layer-for-the-agent-economy-302722116.html" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">eight-plus blockchain families</a> at launch: EVM, Solana, Bitcoin, Cosmos, Tron, TON, Spark, Filecoin, and XRP Ledger.
The core security model uses AES-256-GCM encryption for private keys. Keys are decrypted only at the moment of signing, then immediately wiped from memory. A policy-gated signing engine enforces spending limits and contract allowlists, giving developers granular control over what an AI agent can and cannot do with funds.
The architecture is local-first. The wallet vault resides on the user's machine with no cloud dependency for signing operations. This non-custodial design is notable from a regulatory standpoint, as private keys never leave the user's device and are never held by MoonPay, potentially sidestepping custodial licensing requirements in many jurisdictions.
Developers can integrate the standard via CLI, npm (@open-wallet-standard/core), or pip (open-wallet-standard). Over 15 organizations contributed to the specification at launch, including PayPal, OKX, Ripple, Ethereum Foundation, Solana Foundation, TON Foundation, Base, Polygon, Circle, Filecoin Foundation, LayerZero, and Arbitrum.
MoonPay CEO Ivan Soto-Wright framed the release as filling a critical infrastructure gap:
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 "The agent economy has payment rails. It didn't have a wallet standard. We built one, open-sourced it, and now the full stack exists."
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<h2 id="why-ai-agent-payments-matter-for-crypto-adoption">Why AI Agent Payments Matter for Crypto Adoption</h2>
Before the Open Wallet Standard, an AI agent that needed to execute a crypto transaction faced a fragmented landscape. Each agent framework, whether built on LangChain, AutoGPT, or proprietary stacks, had to implement its own wallet integration. No comparable cross-chain open wallet standard backed by this breadth of industry contributors existed.
In practice, an AI agent payment looks like this: an autonomous system identifies a task (purchasing cloud compute, settling a microtransaction, paying for an API call), constructs the transaction, and signs it through the wallet standard's policy engine, all without human intervention but within pre-set guardrails. This is the kind of programmable payment infrastructure that could reshape how <a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">crypto interacts with traditional finance</a> and commerce.
<div class="stat-callout">
 AI Agents Market Size (Projected)
 $47B+
 estimated market by 2030, with payments automation as a core use case — the opportunity MoonPay's Open Wallet Standard is built to capture.
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The standard complements existing payment protocols already gaining traction in the space: x402 for HTTP-based stablecoin payments, the Agent Payments Protocol (AP2), and the Machine Payments Protocol (MPP). Together, these layers form what MoonPay describes as a full stack for agent-driven commerce.
MoonPay laid the groundwork in February 2026 with "MoonPay Agents," a non-custodial layer allowing AI systems to interact with wallets programmatically. The Open Wallet Standard extends that vision into an industry-wide specification, moving from a single company's product to shared infrastructure.
Market projections suggest AI agent payments could grow from $5.1 billion in 2025 to $55.2 billion by 2035, with some analysts estimating that 30% of all crypto transactions could be agent-driven by that date. Those figures remain unaudited projections, but the participation of organizations like PayPal and the Ethereum Foundation in the standard's development signals real institutional confidence in the direction.
As <a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">regulatory frameworks for crypto continue to evolve</a> and <a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">market volatility persists</a>, the Open Wallet Standard represents a bet that the next wave of crypto adoption will be driven not by human retail traders, but by autonomous agents transacting on their behalf.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. Cryptocurrency and digital asset markets carry significant risk. Always do your own research before making decisions.<a href="https://cryptodailyalert.com/moonpay-open-wallet-standard-ai-agent-payments-crypto/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Read original article on cryptodailyalert.com</a>

MoonPay Open Wallet Standard: Powering AI Agent Payments & Crypto

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