Hashed subsidiary ShardLab unveils on-chain agent stack…"AI directly makes payments and investments" [Breakpoint 2025]

Suehyeon Lee

Summary

ShardLab said the on-chain payment stack it unveiled enables AI agents to independently carry out economic activities such as payments and investments.
The stack consists of a stablecoin payment module and on-chain identity, among others, and supports economic participation of AI agents.
ShardLab emphasized that on-chain payment infrastructure will be an essential layer in a market where AI becomes an actual user of finance.

*Lee Jae-wook, ShardLab product manager, is presenting the product at 'Solana Breakpoint 2025'./Photo=Lee Soo-hyun, Bloomingbit reporter*

ShardLab, a subsidiary of global Web3 venture capital firm Hashed, unveiled an on-chain payment stack that enables artificial intelligence (AI) agents to perform payments, budget management, and transaction execution on their own.

On the 13th (local time) at the 'Breakpoint 2025' stage held at Abu Dhabi Etihad Arena, ShardLab product manager Lee Jae-wook said, "AI is expanding beyond simple information processing stages into economic actors such as decision-making, spending, and investment," and added, "In an era where millions of AIs independently seek information and choose actions, if they do not have means of payment, they cannot participate in real economic activity. To solve this, we developed a payment stack dedicated to AI."

The payment stack unveiled by ShardLab consists of △stablecoin-based payment module △conversion and transfer engine for global currency compatibility △on-chain identity structure that grants agents unique identities △execution layer that defines rules of interaction between agents. The manager said, "AI, like humans, must have identity, wallets, and permissions, and blockchain is the technology that implements this most naturally."

An AI agent demo was also revealed on site. When a user sets a budget and conditions for an agent, the process in which the agent independently analyzes trends, selects an execution strategy, and processes on-chain payments was demonstrated. ShardLab plans to build an 'AI agent marketplace' where agents can trade and share strategies and performance they generate in the future.

Meanwhile, ShardLab emphasized that a technical foundation that securely protects personal information and model data is essential for the AI agent economy to expand. The manager explained, "Security is the top priority in the exchange process between user information and AI models," and added, "To this end, we will apply ZK (zero-knowledge)-based privacy technology to implement trustworthy interactions without exposing personal information."

Finally, Manager Lee Jae-wook emphasized, "In an era where AI becomes an actual user of finance, on-chain payment infrastructure will become an essential layer," and stressed, "We will expand the AI-on-chain convergence structure together with technology partners."