HSBC, Ant Digital Test AI Agent Payments Using Tokenized Deposits

HSBC and Ant Digital Technologies have completed a technical trial demonstrating how AI agents can autonomously access digital services and execute micropayments using tokenized bank deposits, with transactions settled in real time on a blockchain testnet. The experiment combined HSBC's Tokenised Deposit Service with Ant Digital's Anvita Flow network, which enables AI agents to discover and interact with services, alongside Jovay Testnet, a layer-2 blockchain testing environment. HSBC provided settlement capabilities and real-time risk checks, while Ant Digital coordinated service access and payment flows. The demonstration featured an AI agent selecting a digital service and completing a payment under $2, with the companies emphasizing that the trial was limited to technical verification and does not represent a commercial launch.

HSBC is part of a growing wave of banks exploring AI-agent-initiated transactions. In March, Santander completed an AI-agent-initiated payment using Mastercard's Agent Pay infrastructure in a controlled test against its live payment systems. Swiss digital asset bank Sygnum followed in May with a test of AI-agent-driven transactions on a blockchain mainnet, requiring customers to approve and sign each transaction. Spanish banking group CaixaBank also completed an AI-agent-initiated card transaction using Visa Intelligent Commerce and existing merchant payment rails. Despite these pilots, not every industry observer is convinced legacy banks can adapt. Augustus Bank CEO Ferdinand Dabitz said in a May interview that traditional clearing banks rely on infrastructure built for human operations rather than automated, 24/7 transactions, positioning his firm as a US bank built around stablecoins and AI-driven operations.

Research firm Citrini Research weighed in on the broader implications in its Oct. 8 report "Breaking The Wall," arguing that autonomous AI agents could drive significant blockchain adoption by enabling machine-to-machine commerce at scale. The HSBC-Ant Digital test suggests that tokenized deposits—rather than solely stablecoins or cryptocurrencies—may offer banks a path to supporting AI-driven finance within existing regulatory and compliance frameworks. With multiple major banks actively piloting these workflows, the convergence of AI agents and blockchain-based settlement infrastructure is moving from theory toward early-stage implementation.