Ant Digital Technologies, the blockchain arm of Ant Group, has launched Anvita, a platform aimed at letting artificial intelligence agents coordinate tasks, exchange value and settle payments over crypto-based rails using stablecoins, marking a notable attempt by a major Chinese-linked technology group to move beyond tokenisation into machine-driven commerce. The platform was unveiled at the company’s Real Up Cannes event on March 31, where executives described it as infrastructure for an “agent-to-agent” economy.
Anvita has been built around two products. One, Anvita TaaS, is designed as tokenisation infrastructure for institutional real-world assets, including issuance, custody and treasury management. The other, Anvita Flow, is positioned as an AI-native network through which autonomous software agents can discover one another, coordinate work, and exchange value in real time. Ant Digital Technologies said the system integrates the x402 micropayment protocol to support instant machine-to-machine settlement, a detail that signals its ambition to serve not merely as a blockchain showcase but as a working payments layer for automated activity.
The launch matters because it lands at the intersection of two fast-moving themes in finance: the spread of tokenised assets and the search for viable payment rails for AI agents. Ant executive Zhuoqun Bian framed that shift in expansive terms, arguing that simply putting assets on-chain creates only “static infrastructure”, while the larger opportunity lies in agents that can hold assets, execute trades and optimise portfolios. That language places Ant alongside a widening group of payments and crypto firms betting that software agents will eventually need wallets, identities and programmable money to operate without constant human approval.
Stablecoins have become the preferred candidate for that role because they offer round-the-clock settlement and can move across borders more easily than legacy banking systems. Reuters has reported a broader industry push in that direction this year, from Visa’s effort to integrate stablecoins into existing payment systems to cross-border payments companies such as OpenFX and Pine Labs building products around faster blockchain-based settlement. Visa’s crypto chief told Reuters in January that stablecoin settlement volumes on Visa’s network had reached a $4.5 billion annualised run rate, though he also cautioned that merchant acceptance at scale is still missing. That tension is central to the Anvita story: the technology for instant settlement is advancing faster than the real-world merchant and regulatory infrastructure around it.
Ant’s own strategy appears to reflect that same balancing act. While Anvita is being promoted through Ant Digital Technologies as a Web3 and AI infrastructure play, Reuters reported in June 2025 that Ant International planned to apply for a licence to issue fiat-referenced stablecoins in Hong Kong once the city’s new regime took effect on August 1, 2025. That move suggested the wider Ant ecosystem sees regulated stablecoin frameworks not as a fringe experiment but as a possible extension of mainstream financial plumbing. A later Reuters report said Ant International was also considering similar licence applications in other jurisdictions, even as executives stressed they were focused on improving payment systems rather than enabling speculative crypto trading.
That distinction will matter if Anvita is to gain traction with institutions. Tokenisation services for real-world assets have drawn interest from banks and asset managers because they promise faster settlement, better collateral mobility and programmable cash management. Reuters reported last month that Bank of Montreal was preparing a tokenised cash platform with CME Group and Google Cloud, underlining how established finance groups are now trying to build always-on settlement tools for institutional clients. Ant is entering that field with an advantage in scale and payments experience, but also with a harder trust challenge because AI agents making autonomous decisions raise immediate questions over accountability, permissioning, fraud controls and jurisdiction.
The company’s Cannes summit reflected an effort to answer some of those concerns by placing banks, infrastructure providers and digital-asset firms in the same conversation. Speakers included representatives from HSBC, BNP Paribas, Circle, EY and the Ethereum Foundation, according to the launch material. Their presence gave the event more of an institutional tone than a purely crypto one, and that appears deliberate. Ant is not alone in arguing that the next phase of digital finance will combine AI decision-making with blockchain settlement. What is less clear is how quickly corporate treasurers, regulators and mainstream payment networks will accept software agents as independent economic actors rather than as tools operating under tighter human supervision.
Anvita has been built around two products. One, Anvita TaaS, is designed as tokenisation infrastructure for institutional real-world assets, including issuance, custody and treasury management. The other, Anvita Flow, is positioned as an AI-native network through which autonomous software agents can discover one another, coordinate work, and exchange value in real time. Ant Digital Technologies said the system integrates the x402 micropayment protocol to support instant machine-to-machine settlement, a detail that signals its ambition to serve not merely as a blockchain showcase but as a working payments layer for automated activity.
The launch matters because it lands at the intersection of two fast-moving themes in finance: the spread of tokenised assets and the search for viable payment rails for AI agents. Ant executive Zhuoqun Bian framed that shift in expansive terms, arguing that simply putting assets on-chain creates only “static infrastructure”, while the larger opportunity lies in agents that can hold assets, execute trades and optimise portfolios. That language places Ant alongside a widening group of payments and crypto firms betting that software agents will eventually need wallets, identities and programmable money to operate without constant human approval.
Stablecoins have become the preferred candidate for that role because they offer round-the-clock settlement and can move across borders more easily than legacy banking systems. Reuters has reported a broader industry push in that direction this year, from Visa’s effort to integrate stablecoins into existing payment systems to cross-border payments companies such as OpenFX and Pine Labs building products around faster blockchain-based settlement. Visa’s crypto chief told Reuters in January that stablecoin settlement volumes on Visa’s network had reached a $4.5 billion annualised run rate, though he also cautioned that merchant acceptance at scale is still missing. That tension is central to the Anvita story: the technology for instant settlement is advancing faster than the real-world merchant and regulatory infrastructure around it.
Ant’s own strategy appears to reflect that same balancing act. While Anvita is being promoted through Ant Digital Technologies as a Web3 and AI infrastructure play, Reuters reported in June 2025 that Ant International planned to apply for a licence to issue fiat-referenced stablecoins in Hong Kong once the city’s new regime took effect on August 1, 2025. That move suggested the wider Ant ecosystem sees regulated stablecoin frameworks not as a fringe experiment but as a possible extension of mainstream financial plumbing. A later Reuters report said Ant International was also considering similar licence applications in other jurisdictions, even as executives stressed they were focused on improving payment systems rather than enabling speculative crypto trading.
That distinction will matter if Anvita is to gain traction with institutions. Tokenisation services for real-world assets have drawn interest from banks and asset managers because they promise faster settlement, better collateral mobility and programmable cash management. Reuters reported last month that Bank of Montreal was preparing a tokenised cash platform with CME Group and Google Cloud, underlining how established finance groups are now trying to build always-on settlement tools for institutional clients. Ant is entering that field with an advantage in scale and payments experience, but also with a harder trust challenge because AI agents making autonomous decisions raise immediate questions over accountability, permissioning, fraud controls and jurisdiction.
The company’s Cannes summit reflected an effort to answer some of those concerns by placing banks, infrastructure providers and digital-asset firms in the same conversation. Speakers included representatives from HSBC, BNP Paribas, Circle, EY and the Ethereum Foundation, according to the launch material. Their presence gave the event more of an institutional tone than a purely crypto one, and that appears deliberate. Ant is not alone in arguing that the next phase of digital finance will combine AI decision-making with blockchain settlement. What is less clear is how quickly corporate treasurers, regulators and mainstream payment networks will accept software agents as independent economic actors rather than as tools operating under tighter human supervision.
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Cryptocurrency