Agentic commerce is coming to the world of stablecoins. Citing low consumer trust in AI agents, the London-based stablecoin-technology company Wirex has launched an AI agent platform called Navoka, which is set up to pay from a dedicated bank account and card.
With Navoka, each agent gets its own wallet, debit card, and International Bank Account Number, or IBAN. This is separate from the user’s own accounts, though funds can flow between them, according to Wirex. The agents deal in fiat money as well as digital assets, and users can restrict transactions by setting spending controls and other limits. The agents are restricted from changing these criteria, Wirex says.
Besides spending caps, Navoka allows users when necessary to freeze the card agents are using, an option Wirex calls a “kill switch,” and agents do not see the users’ card details, according to Wirex. The safeguards come as fears have risen in the payments industry regarding so-called rogue AI agents, or code that can act without regard to rules or limits set by users. The setup provides for an audit trail that records the rule the agent acted under, who gave approval, and the reason for the approval, according to Wirex.
Access to Navoka is restricted for now to those invited to use it, Wirex says. The move comes as a statistic cited by Wirex, Visa’s Trust Index, indicates just 23% of consumers in the U.S. market trust generative AI for payment transactions. With Navoka, users initiate a payment by sending a message to Navoka through Telegram. WhatsApp and iMessage will be added later, Wirex says.
“As payments become programmable, we’re using that infrastructure to give Navoka AI agents the same protections and oversight users expect when they pay themselves,” says Pavel Matveev, Wirex’s chief executive and cofounder, in a statement. “Navoka gives the agent its own account and card, so people can hand over the paying without handing over their bank details.”
Besides spending limits, controls enabled by Navoka include restrictions to certain merchants and countries. The agent cannot change these criteria, according to Wirex, and any out-of-bounds activity requires approval from the user.
