MoonPay launches PayBox, an AI payment vault for ChatGPT and Claude

MoonPay has launched PayBox, an AI payment vault that lets users connect OpenAI's ChatGPT and Anthropic's Claude to make payments directly from a conversation.

Users connect PayBox to ChatGPT or Claude through a custom connector, allowing the AI assistant to prepare transactions such as booking flights, making restaurant reservations, or shopping online. The AI prepares the transaction, while the user approves it with a passkey before funds move. Users can also choose an autonomous mode that allows the AI to complete transactions within limits they set.

MoonPay Labs Chief Engineer Neeraj Prasad told The Block that PayBox combines crypto wallets and payment cards in a non-custodial vault that users connect directly to ChatGPT or Claude. It supports transactions across blockchains, DeFi applications, and services built on the x402 agent payment standard, without requiring users to hand over custody of their funds or use developer tools.

PayBox can make payments to any service that accepts x402. Current integrations include restaurant reservations through AgentRes.dev, shopping through Purch.xyz, and flight bookings through BRIJ.fi. Originally developed by Coinbase, x402 is now governed by the Linux Foundation and backed by more than 20 organizations, including AWS, Cloudflare, Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, Shopify, and Anthropic.

According to MoonPay, no party, including the company or the AI assistant itself, can independently access a user's funds or credentials.

PayBox launches with support for Solana and Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible blockchains, including Ethereum, Hyperliquid, Tempo, Base, Robinhood Chain, Arbitrum and Polygon, with additional networks planned.

Prasad said support for additional AI platforms is expected within the next month. MoonPay also plans to expand PayBox further into decentralized finance by adding support for token swaps, perpetual futures trading and liquidity management under the same user-defined approval rules within the next month, Prasad added.

The PayBox vault

To set up PayBox, users install it inside ChatGPT or Claude, create an account, register a passkey, then create or import a crypto wallet and optionally add payment cards. The vault can be funded using an existing wallet or a payment card after MoonPay's identity verification process.

Users can choose between two permission models. "Always Ask" requires passkey approval for every transaction, while "Autonomous" allows the AI assistant to complete transactions within user-defined limits.

MoonPay said payment cards are stored so AI agents can make purchases without accessing the underlying card details. Crypto wallet keys are protected using multi-party computation (MPC) and trusted execution environments (TEEs), meaning no single party, including MoonPay or the AI assistant, can access a complete private key or sign transactions independently.

The system is built on the key management infrastructure of Sodot, the company MoonPay acquired earlier this year.

Asked how PayBox is designed to reduce security risks, Prasad said wallet keys are split across hardware-isolated secure environments using MPC, preventing any single device, session, or party from moving funds on its own. For card payments, PayBox uses Visa's agentic commerce protocol, allowing transactions without exposing or storing the underlying card number. He added that because each passkey approval is valid for only one transaction, captured or replayed approvals cannot be reused to authorize additional payments.

PayBox builds on a series of AI initiatives from MoonPay over the past year. The company acquired AI accounting startup Entendre, launched MoonPay Agents and the Open Wallet Standard to let AI agents securely hold and use crypto wallets, introduced the MoonAgents Card for stablecoin payments, and acquired AI trading startup Dawn Labs, founded by Prasad.