Summary
- MoonPay has unveiled PayBox, a payment vault integrated within Claude and ChatGPT that enables AI agents to conduct transactions.
- User wallet keys are secured using multi-party computation (MPC) and trusted execution environment (TEE) cryptography, ensuring that no single entity, including MoonPay or the AI, can access funds or authorize transactions independently.
- The service utilizes technology from Sodot, an Israeli key management company that MoonPay acquired for approximately $100 million in April.
MoonPay has officially launched PayBox, a secure payment vault that integrates with Claude and ChatGPT, allowing AI agents to autonomously execute financial transactions on behalf of users.
The functionality of PayBox is quite simple. It serves as a secure digital repository for both cryptocurrency wallets and payment cards. Users can instruct the chatbot regarding their desired purchases, and the AI prepares the transaction. Approval is given through a passkey (a secure digital key stored on the user's device, similar to Face ID for transactions), after which the funds are transferred.
MoonPay CEO Ivan Soto-Wright stated, "The card hid the cash. The phone hid the card. This is the era where money disappears into conversation." He emphasized that with billions of AI agents coming online, each will require a secure way to hold, transfer, and spend money. (It is worth noting that MoonPay Ventures is an investor in Dastan, the parent company of Decrypt.)
Previously, Claude and ChatGPT could provide investment insights, compare prices for flights, and help plan purchases but could not finalize transactions. Users still needed to navigate to a payment service to complete purchases. PayBox aims to fill this void.
At launch, PayBox supports integrations for restaurant bookings, flight reservations, and shopping at major online retailers. Users can also exchange tokens, transfer funds across blockchains, and invest in decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms like Aave.
The service is compatible with Solana and seven Ethereum-compatible chains, including Ethereum, Hyperliquid, Tempo, Base, Robinhood Chain, Arbitrum, and Polygon. It also incorporates x402, an open payment protocol developed by Coinbase and now supported by Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, Shopify, AWS, and Anthropic, which allows AI agents to process payments for any service configured to accept transactions initiated by agents.
The development of PayBox has been a key focus for MoonPay throughout 2026. In March, the company introduced an open wallet standard for AI agents, which received backing from PayPal, the Ethereum Foundation, and the Solana Foundation. In May, MoonPay released an application that enabled users to purchase cryptocurrency within ChatGPT, although that version required users to finalize purchases on a checkout page. In June, it launched a desktop application linking Claude and Codex to crypto wallets directly.
The foundation of PayBox is built on technology from Sodot, an Israeli key management startup acquired by MoonPay for around $100 million in an all-stock deal in April. Sodot's security infrastructure currently protects over $50 billion in assets and more than 10 million wallets for clients such as eToro and BitGo.
Wallet keys are divided using MPC, a cryptographic method that breaks a private key into pieces held by various parties, preventing any single entity from accessing the funds independently. These key fragments are stored in TEEs (trusted execution environments), which are secure hardware zones that safeguard sensitive data from the software running on the server.
According to the launch announcement, "wallet keys are split via MPC across hardware-isolated enclaves, meaning no device, session, or party, including MoonPay and the AI agent, can hold a complete key or sign transactions alone."
Payments made with cards are processed through Visa's agentic commerce protocol, allowing the AI to handle payments without ever accessing the user's actual card number, thereby minimizing the risk of credential theft and misuse.
MoonPay positions PayBox as a solution to a significant challenge faced by existing payment solutions. The company stated, "Existing products force a tradeoff between convenience and control: to allow an agent to transact independently, users typically must authorize the agent to take custody of their funds, placing trust in a single party, whether it be the platform, the agent, or a hosted wallet, to manage their money securely. PayBox is designed such that no one, including MoonPay or the AI, can unilaterally access the user's funds or credentials."