HSBC and Ant Digital test AI-agent payments with tokenized deposits

HSBC and Ant Digital Technologies have run a test in which software agents shopped for digital services and paid for them on their own, using tokenized bank deposits as the money. What the trial actually did The technical verification test took place on October 9, 2026. It paired HSBC’s Tokenised Deposit Service, known as TDS, with Ant Digital’s Anvita Flow network. Transactions ran on the Jovay Testnet, a Layer 2 blockchain environment. The core demonstration was autonomous. AI agents located digital services, invoked them, and executed micropayments to pay for what they used. Transactions in the test typically came in under $2. Settlement happened in real time. Risk checks ran through an interface that sits on the bank’s side, meaning HSBC kept its hands on the controls even as the agents did the spending. This was strictly a technical exercise. There were no commercial applications, no live customers, and no confirmed transaction values beyond the test environment. Why tokenized deposits, and why micropayments HSBC’s TDS represents corporate deposits on a 1:1 basis as on-chain digital records. Each token is simply a bank deposit wearing blockchain clothing, not a new asset with ...