Your AI is getting a bank account: MoonPay just gave bots the power to spend money

Imagine waking up to find your AI made $3,000 while you slept. Cryptocurrency payments firm MoonPay just made this scenario possible with Tuesday's launch of MoonPay Agents—a service that gives AI bots their own wallets and the power to spend money autonomously.

The 24/7 Employee You Never Hired

MoonPay Agents works like this: Complete a one-time KYC verification, fund your AI's wallet, and step back. The bot takes over completely—trading, swapping, moving money across platforms without asking permission.

"AI agents can reason, but they cannot act economically without capital infrastructure," said Ivan Soto-Wright, MoonPay's CEO. "We've built the bridge between AI and money."

This isn't just about convenience. It's about AI agents that never sleep, never panic, and can execute trades in milliseconds across global markets.

Winners and Losers Emerge

The winners are obvious: sophisticated traders who can deploy AI to monitor hundreds of markets simultaneously. Hedge funds are already salivating over bots that can arbitrage across exchanges faster than any human.

The losers? Traditional traders who need sleep, make emotional decisions, and can't compete with algorithmic precision. But there's a bigger concern lurking beneath the surface.

The Accountability Gap

When your AI loses $50,000 in a flash crash, who's responsible? The user who funded it? The AI company? The exchange? Current regulations weren't designed for autonomous financial agents, creating a legal gray area that could prove costly.

Regulators are scrambling to catch up. The SEC hasn't issued clear guidance on AI trading liability, while the EU's AI Act doesn't specifically address financial autonomy.

The Bigger Picture

MoonPay's move signals a fundamental shift: we're transitioning from AI as a tool to AI as an economic actor. This goes beyond trading—imagine AI agents negotiating contracts, managing supply chains, or even starting businesses.

The $300 trillion in global financial assets could soon be partially managed by algorithms that operate independently of human oversight. That's both thrilling and terrifying.