MoonPay has introduced the Open Wallet Standard (OWS), an open-source framework intended to give AI agents a secure, universal, and non-custodial way to manage digital assets across major blockchains. Announced on March 23, 2026, the release is aimed at addressing a growing infrastructure problem in the agent economy: while payment rails for autonomous systems are emerging, wallet standards remain fragmented across chains, tools, and software environments.
The company said OWS is now available to developers through Github, npm, and PyPI. Its stated purpose is to allow AI agents to hold value and sign onchain transactions without exposing sensitive private keys, a design choice that targets one of the biggest barriers to machine-driven commerce in crypto. Rather than relying on fragmented wallet implementations or chain-specific logic, OWS is positioned as a common framework that can work across multiple blockchain ecosystems and agent stacks.
Designed for secure machine-to-machine transactions
According to MoonPay, the Open Wallet Standard introduces a unified encrypted vault that supports eight blockchain families, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana. This matters because AI agents operating across decentralized networks may need to transact, custody value, and execute instructions on different chains depending on the application. Without a shared wallet layer, developers face integration complexity, inconsistent security assumptions, and limited portability.
MoonPay’s framing of OWS centers on the needs of machine-to-machine commerce. The company argues that autonomous agents require a wallet system capable not only of storing assets, but also of enforcing controls that reflect human oversight. To address that, the standard includes policy-gated signing, which allows transactions to be authorized only within predefined spending or execution rules. In practice, that means agents can operate autonomously while remaining subject to guardrails set by human operators or organizations.
The framework also uses a local-first storage model. MoonPay says private keys are encrypted at rest and are never exposed directly to the AI agent or large language model. This architecture is intended to reduce the risk of key leakage while preserving non-custodial control. In an environment where AI systems may trigger financial actions automatically, keeping secret material isolated from the model layer is likely to be a key requirement for enterprise and developer adoption.
Backed by major crypto and payments organizations
MoonPay said the launch of OWS is supported by more than 15 major organizations. Among the named backers are the Ethereum Foundation, Solana Foundation, and Paypal. In the project FAQ, the company also references contributors and partners such as Ripple and OKX, suggesting that interest in the standard extends beyond a single blockchain ecosystem.
This backing is notable because standards gain traction not simply through technical merit, but through ecosystem participation. A wallet layer intended for AI agents must be interoperable enough to satisfy crypto-native developers, payments companies, infrastructure providers, and enterprise platforms. By highlighting support from both blockchain foundations and established financial technology players, MoonPay appears to be signaling that OWS is meant to serve as neutral infrastructure rather than a closed product tied to one chain or one vendor.
The standard is also described as being globally accessible for developers and organizations, including in the United States, through public repositories. That open availability may help accelerate experimentation as teams building AI agents, autonomous software systems, and onchain services look for common methods of asset control and transaction execution.
Part of a broader MoonPay strategy in the autonomous economy
The OWS release fits into MoonPay’s broader push to become a foundational infrastructure provider for the emerging autonomous economy. The company said it currently serves more than 30 million customers across 180 countries and supports over 500 enterprise partners through its global payments network. Those figures give context to MoonPay’s attempt to expand beyond consumer on-ramps and payment services into technical rails for AI-driven financial activity.
The launch also follows MoonPay’s recent integration of Ledger hardware signing into its agent stack. That earlier move pointed to a strategy focused on stronger security controls for autonomous systems. With OWS, MoonPay is extending that effort from a product capability into a broader open standard that other developers and organizations can adopt.
Ivan Soto-Wright, MoonPay’s CEO and co-founder, summarized the company’s thesis in a statement: “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.” The remark underscores MoonPay’s view that AI commerce infrastructure has been incomplete without a common wallet framework capable of handling identity, custody logic, transaction approval, and multichain interoperability.
Why the launch matters
The significance of OWS lies less in a single product release and more in the standardization effort it represents. As AI agents become more capable of executing financial actions—whether paying for services, managing treasury operations, or interacting with decentralized applications—they will require dependable wallet infrastructure that can be audited, constrained, and reused across environments. Fragmented wallet designs can slow deployment and increase operational risk, especially in enterprise settings.
By open-sourcing OWS, MoonPay is attempting to create shared infrastructure for that next phase. The framework combines multichain support, policy-based controls, non-custodial architecture, and compatibility across agent frameworks. If developers and institutions adopt it, OWS could help reduce integration friction and provide a more standardized way for autonomous agents to transact onchain.
At the same time, the long-term impact of the standard will depend on implementation, ecosystem support, and whether it can become a trusted layer across competing platforms. In the near term, the launch shows that wallet design is becoming a central issue in AI finance. Payment rails may already exist, but for autonomous economic activity to scale, the market will likely need secure and interoperable wallet standards that can function across chains and software systems.
MoonPay’s announcement suggests that the company wants to help define that layer. With support from major industry organizations and an open-source distribution model, OWS enters the market as an attempt to make AI-agent payments safer, more portable, and more practical across the broader blockchain ecosystem.