AI+Crypto Payment: A New Paradigm for Digital Transformation

By: Oak Grove Ventures Research Team

Article Overview

With the deep integration of Web3 ecology and artificial intelligence technology, the field of crypto payment is undergoing a paradigm shift from tool attributes to ecological empowerment. This report focuses on the cutting-edge direction of "crypto payment + AI". By analyzing three cases, including Crossmints' solution to the Boba Guys dilemma, AEON's crypto payment protocol for AI agents, and Gaia Network's cooperation with MoonPay, it reveals how technology integration reconstructs payment processes, user incentives, and ecological interaction models.

The core of technology integration is that AI gives the payment system dynamic decision-making capabilities, and blockchain provides a trusted execution environment for AI agents, forming a closed loop of "data on-chain - intelligent processing - value transfer". According to MarketsandMarkets forecast data, the AI agent market size is expected to grow from US$5.1 billion in 2024 to US$47.1 billion in 2030, with a compound annual growth rate of 44.8%. Crypto payment, as its value carrier, is reshaping the Web3 user interaction paradigm - the digital transformation of traditional scenarios is accelerating with "cryptocurrency payment + AI economic brain" as the engine.

This trend further proves that technological collaboration is breaking down on-chain and off-chain barriers, providing a replicable transformation path for DeFi, retail and other fields: focusing on users, using encrypted payments to link data value, and using AI to achieve intelligent collaboration between assets and behaviors, pushing the value Internet from concept to the critical point of large-scale application.

1. Why is encrypted payment adapted to AI? ——The mechanism basis of integration advantages

The fundamental reason why encrypted payment has become the preferred execution path of AI systems is the natural synergy in the operating mechanism. Compared with traditional payment methods, Crypto can provide AI agents with higher calling freedom, stronger automation capabilities and better response efficiency, and is an indispensable infrastructure for the implementation of "intelligent execution".

First, Crypto payment supports native automatic calls, and AI can directly generate and operate wallets to complete payment, authorization, interaction and other behaviors, truly realizing "machine as user". Secondly, on-chain transactions are open, transparent and traceable, and each payment is credible data, providing a realistic anchor for the interpretability of AI.

In addition, Crypto has multi-chain compatibility and micropayment capabilities, which can adapt to AI's high-frequency, low-amount payment needs in multiple scenarios; at the same time, the on-chain behavior itself can also be analyzed and utilized by AI to form a closed-loop mechanism of payment-data-feedback, further enhancing the system's intelligent response.

In general, encrypted payment is not only an execution tool for AI, but also an important part of its operation strategy and incentive mechanism. The combination of the two provides broad space for subsequent product innovation and business model implementation.

2. Project Case Analysis

2.1 Crossmints: Web3 infrastructure empowers AI payments

As a leader in the field of Web3 infrastructure, Crossmint has created an efficient and integrated payment tool chain for enterprises and developers, giving AI agents real and usable economic behavior capabilities and realizing the deep integration of encrypted payment and intelligent execution. Its system supports one-click wallet generation, on-chain contract calls, automated transaction execution, and is compatible with mainstream networks such as Ethereum, Polygon, and Solana.

It is particularly worth mentioning that Crossmint provides dynamic inter-chain switching capabilities. When the Ethereum network is congested, causing transaction fees to soar and confirmation time to lengthen, the system can monitor the operating status of each chain in real time, and intelligently switch to a better execution network such as Polygon based on multi-dimensional data such as handling fees and transaction speed. The entire process does not require manual intervention, which significantly improves transaction efficiency and stability.

Crossmint has made outstanding achievements in promoting the integration of crypto payments and AI. The following analysis is based on the cooperation case with Boba Guys.

2.1.1 Boba Guys + Crossmint Case: AI-driven on-chain crypto payment loyalty program

• Core Summary

Boba Guys is a well-known American milk tea brand that faces the problem of separation between traditional payment and user incentives. Boba Guys built an AI-driven on-chain loyalty program based on Solana through Crossmint, deeply combining crypto payment with user behavior data to achieve digital transformation of traditional retail scenarios. The project integrates automatic wallet creation, seamless transaction experience and multi-chain support technology, and uses AI to analyze consumption data to generate personalized marketing strategies, significantly improving user engagement and payment efficiency.

Boba Guys’ core pain points

Traditional payment and loyalty programs are separated, and crypto payment cannot play its advantages in user incentives.

Lack of AI technology support makes it difficult to achieve intelligent analysis of payment data and user behavior

Crossmint’s solution

Crypto payment integration

• Automatic wallet creation: When users register, a crypto wallet is generated, supporting mainstream cryptocurrency payments
• Seamless transaction experience: No need to manually process gas fees during the payment process, and transaction information is stored on the chain in real time
• Multi-chain support: compatible with multiple blockchain networks such as Ethereum and Polygon

AI Applications

• Behavioral analysis: Create user profiles based on data such as consumption amount, frequency, category, and time
• Personalized recommendations: push exclusive offers based on user profiles, and recommend new products to try based on historical purchase tastes
• Dynamic incentives: Adjust the points redemption ratio based on activity and issue retention rewards to lost users

Application results

• In less than 3 months, more than 15,000 members have joined the program.
• Loyalty members experience more than 244% more store visits compared to non-members.
• Loyalty members spend 3.5 times more than non-members

Model innovation and industry inspiration

This case has created a new retail paradigm of "crypto payment as user incentive": by converting consumer behavior into on-chain identifiable and transferable digital assets (such as NFT rewards), Boba Guys has not only increased user repurchase rates, but also built a decentralized membership ecosystem.

Crossmint's AI technology plays the role of "data hub" in this process: it not only realizes the real-time chain and intelligent analysis of payment data, but also reduces operating costs through automation strategies. This provides a replicable transformation path for traditional industries such as retail and catering: using encrypted payment as the entrance and AI algorithm as the engine, reconstructing the "payment-data-incentive" closed loop, and promoting the upgrade of offline scenarios to digitalization and intelligence.

2.2 AEON: AI-driven encrypted payment protocol, reconstructing the proxy execution path

Project Positioning

AEON is a cryptographic payment protocol designed for AI agents, dedicated to providing a cross-chain, highly available payment execution layer. Unlike traditional payment systems, AEON is not a single application, but an embeddable payment interface that serves various automated agents, smart contracts, and Web3 applications. The project has expanded rapidly since the end of 2024 and currently covers multi-chain ecosystems such as BNB Chain, Solana, TON, TRON, and Stellar.

2.2.1 AI-driven payment execution path

Unlike other cases where AI is used for analysis and recommendation, AEON focuses more on building payment capabilities that can be directly called by AI. In other words, its goal is to enable AI agents to complete real payment tasks autonomously and safely, thereby promoting the implementation of automated systems in real-world transaction scenarios. When users issue natural language instructions such as "book a flight" and "buy coffee" through AI, AI can directly call the AEON API to generate a payment request, complete amount recognition, asset selection, cross-chain exchange and settlement, and the process does not require human intervention.

Its mechanism includes two key designs:

• Payment Intent Identification (KYA): The system uses a language model to determine whether the AI truly understands the task content and verifies whether it has payment authority, thereby preventing misoperation and risky instruction execution;
• Multi-chain intelligent routing: Dynamically select the optimal payment path based on real-time fees and network congestion to improve transaction efficiency.

This architecture enables various AI agents to no longer be limited to information processing and recommendation, but to truly execute business activities, expanding higher autonomy and collaborative efficiency for Web3 scenarios.

2.2.2 Application Implementation and Ecosystem Integration

Since 2024, AEON has launched the "AI Payment as IT Foundation" roadmap to expand its application to multiple countries and ecological scenarios:

• Offline scenario expansion: AEON has implemented the QR code payment system in Vietnam and other Southeast Asian regions. AI agents can automatically complete the scanning, redemption, payment and other processes.
• Token ecosystem connection: AEON supports multiple types of native crypto assets for payment and has connected to more than 10,000 merchants, covering daily applications such as electronic consumption, life services, and digital content.
• Agent-to-Agent Collaboration: AEON also supports multi-agent module collaboration, such as the intelligent execution model of "information agent generates order - payment agent completes payment".

2.2.3 Diagram: AI and payment process integration logic

The following two figures show the AI agent call path in actual use of AEON Pay, as well as the technical interaction details.

Figure 1: Standard flow chart of AI Agent calling AEON Pay

After the user's instructions are parsed by the AI agent, the payment operation is initiated through the AEON Pay SDK or API. After the system completes the on-chain execution, the results are fed back to the user and the agent to achieve a closed loop.

Figure 2: AI agent + AEON Pay call interaction sequence diagram

The complete interactive chain of "user → AI → AEON → merchant" is demonstrated. The task starts with natural language initiation, and the automatic payment task is completed through five stages: agent analysis, order creation, payment confirmation, on-chain deduction, and status feedback.

Industry Significance and Future Outlook

AEON demonstrated a standardized path for "AI agent-to-pay": abstracting payment into a service for agents to call and automatically execute on demand. This architecture not only improves the composability and intelligence of the payment system, but also brings new execution logic to the Web3 ecosystem.

In the future, AEON plans to expand to off-chain consumption systems supported by Visa and Mastercard, build a seamless bridge between Web3 native users and the real payment world, and further promote the payment paradigm of "AI initiated - Crypto settled - completed now".

2.3 Gaia Network and Moonpay cooperate to promote the integration of encrypted payment and AI

2.3.1 Cooperation Background

MoonPay is the world's leading crypto payment infrastructure service provider, supporting instant exchange of fiat currency and cryptocurrency, with services covering 180+ countries and annual transaction volume exceeding US$15 billion. Gaia is a decentralized AI agent network that allows developers to create, deploy and monetize AI agents. Its core product Mother DAO is the AI agent launch platform for the Ethereum ecosystem.

2.3.2 Synergy and technology integration after cooperation

Deep synergy between payment and AI agent

• Automated transaction process: Users trigger the Gaia agent to call the MoonPay API through natural language instructions (such as "buy $100 worth of ETH") to complete the conversion of fiat currency to cryptocurrency and on-chain transfer without manual wallet operation.
• Smart pricing and settlement: Gaia agents can dynamically adjust service pricing based on market fluctuations. MoonPay completes cryptocurrency settlement in real time, supporting stablecoins and mainstream assets such as USDC and ETH.

Developer Ecosystem Empowerment

• Low-code integration: MoonPay provides pre-built payment modules (such as embedded payment windows), and developers can quickly integrate payment functions into Gaia agents through APIs.
• Cross-chain interoperability: MoonPay’s multi-chain support (such as Solana, Polygon) helps Gaia agents expand application scenarios, such as performing high-frequency trading in the Solana ecosystem.

User experience upgrade

• Simplified fiat currency entry: Non-crypto users can directly use fiat currency to purchase AI agent services through MoonPay, lowering the threshold for Web3.
• Transaction transparency: On-chain transaction records can be checked through blockchain browsers, and users can track payment status and proxy execution results in real time.

3.3.3 Market Impact and Data

• User growth: Gaia completed its first fully autonomous hackathon in 2024, attracting more than 2,000 developers to participate. After the launch of the Mother DAO platform, the number of monthly active users exceeded 50,000.
• Transaction size: Helio had processed over $1.5 billion in transactions before being acquired. After cooperating with Gaia, its on-chain payment function is expected to increase transaction efficiency by 30%.
• Industry Recognition: MoonPay became one of the first crypto payment companies in Europe to obtain a MiCA license in December 2024, and its compliance capabilities enhance the credibility of its partnership with Gaia.

The cooperation between MoonPay and Gaia marks a new stage in the integration of crypto payments and AI technology. By integrating payment infrastructure and decentralized AI agent platforms, the two parties provide developers and users with a full-process solution from creation, deployment to monetization. Despite the technical complexity and compliance challenges, this cooperation model provides an important reference for the intelligent development of the Web3 ecosystem.

3. Industry Challenges and Future Outlook

3.1 Core Challenges

• Technical complexity: Multi-chain collaboration and AI algorithm optimization still need breakthroughs
• Compliance risks: Different countries have significantly different regulatory frameworks for crypto payments and AI technologies. For example, MoonPay needs to balance innovation and compliance under multiple systems such as MiCA and SEC.
• User education costs: Although cases show that the threshold has been lowered, non-crypto users’ awareness of “on-chain wallets and smart contracts” still requires long-term cultivation.

3.2 Future Trends

• Scenario sinking and lightweight: focus on high-frequency scenarios such as small payments, membership systems, and game props transactions, and improve user stickiness through "AI + encrypted payment" (such as copying the Boba Guys model to convenience stores and gyms).
• Infrastructure standardization: Promote cross-platform API interoperability (such as the technical connection between Crossmints and MoonPay), reduce developer integration costs, and form a common technology stack of "payment-agent-data".
• Regulatory technology integration: AI drives compliance reviews (such as automatic identification of sanctions lists and anti-money laundering monitoring) to achieve a dynamic balance between innovation and regulation.

IV. Conclusion

The integration of crypto payment and AI is not a simple technology superposition, but a new business paradigm created by reconstructing the economic logic of "value flow-data processing-user incentives". From Crossmints' retail loyalty revolution to Coinbase's autonomous payment agent, to Gaia and MoonPay's global infrastructure collaboration, cases have proved that when the "decentralized trust" of blockchain and the "intelligent decision-making" of AI are deeply coupled, the digital transformation of traditional industries will break through the efficiency boundary and move towards a new stage of "automation, personalization, and globalization". With the maturity of technology and the improvement of compliance frameworks, this integration trend is expected to become the core driving force for the large-scale implementation of the Web3 ecosystem, opening a new era of "intelligent payment economy".