XDC Network has entered a partnership with Keyban that enables artificial intelligence agents to hold their own accounts and pay for services, while companies retain full control over their funds.

Keyban, a startup that builds non-custodial accounts for AI agents, is supplying a dedicated account layer for XDC AI, the agent payments marketplace operated by XDC Network. Under the arrangement, each agent maintains a separate balance, and Keyban never takes custody of client funds.

Per-call USDC payments with limits set by finance

Through the partnership, agents use their Keyban accounts to discover and pay for APIs on XDC AI. Payments are made in USDC, a US dollar-pegged stablecoin, on a per-call basis, and every transaction settles on XDC Network.

Finance teams determine how much each agent is allowed to spend. Every payment is recorded onchain and tied to the task that triggered it, eliminating the need for shared corporate cards or pooled wallets. That record gives companies an itemized, per-agent view of spending onchain, rather than a single pooled expense line.

Founders: agents need payment rails built for them

“AI agents are becoming economic actors in their own right, but the financial system was never built for them,” said Atul Khekade, Co-Founder of XDC Network. “Today, most agents still pay through shared corporate cards or pooled wallets designed for people, which leaves businesses unable to see which agent spent what or set limits on any one of them. Agentic payments need infrastructure where agents can transact independently and in real time, while the businesses behind them stay in control of every dollar. That is what we are building on XDC, and it is what will move the agentic economy from pilots to production.”

“AI agents are starting to do real work, and real work costs money: for data, APIs and digital services. No CFO is going to hand an agent the corporate card and hope for the best,” said Charles Kremer, Founder of Keyban. “Keyban gives every agent a dedicated account, with budgets and rules set by finance and every payment tied to the task that triggered it. On XDC AI, an agent can discover a service and pay for it in seconds. The agent gets autonomy; finance keeps control.”

XDC aims to serve as the settlement layer for the agentic economy

The integration reinforces XDC Network's positioning as a settlement layer for the agentic economy, in which AI agents transact with businesses and with one another in real time. The partnership speaks to a structural gap in existing payment infrastructure: instruments such as corporate cards and pooled wallets are built around human account holders, leaving autonomous software without accounts it can operate within company-set limits. With Keyban managing agent accounts and XDC AI handling service discovery and payment, companies can deploy agents on XDC with spending controls in place from the start.

Keyban is also a participant in the Plug and Play Agentic Payments and Finance accelerator, run in partnership with XDC Network. The program provides mentorship, business development support, and investor access for startups building within the XDC ecosystem. With Keyban now holding both roles — account provider for XDC AI and startup within the accelerator — two threads worth watching are how enterprises put per-agent accounts to work on the marketplace and how the program's agentic-payments pipeline develops around the network.