# ArisPay

> **The settlement layer for agentic commerce.**

- **status:** live
- **stage:** prototype
- **sector:** Fintech
- **raising:** $2.0M (Open to discussion)
- **website:** https://arispay.app
- **listing:** https://hiveround.com/projects/arispay-executive-summary
- **founder:** Steve Milton (profile: https://hiveround.com/u/stevemilton · github: https://github.com/stevemilton)
- **posted:** 2026-05-02T15:33:04.824673+00:00
- **updated:** 2026-06-17T17:08:07.375683+00:00

## Description

# ArisPay — Executive Summary

The settlement layer for agentic commerce.
---

## The Insight

AI agents are starting to spend money. Multiple protocols are emerging to facilitate this — Coinbase's x402, Stripe's Agentic Commerce Protocol, Visa Intelligent Commerce, Skyfire's KYAPay. Each defines how agents negotiate and authorize payments.

None of them solve the underlying problem: **where does the money actually live?**

Crypto protocols settle on-chain — gas costs, stablecoin-only, no connection to fiat. Card protocols charge per-transaction — which breaks at $0.01 micropayments. Neither works for the agent economy, where an AI might make hundreds of sub-dollar transactions per hour.

**ArisPay is the settlement layer underneath all of them.** Fund once with real money. Settle instantly on our ledger. Off-ramp to any currency.

## How It Works

1. **Fund** — Developer loads agent balance via card (Fiserv — fiat on-ramp, sandbox API in hand) or bank transfer (Global Remit). We charge 2-3%.
2. **Spend** — Agent makes payments inside the network as ledger transfers. Instant, internal, near-zero marginal cost.
3. **Withdraw** — Merchants off-ramp to external bank accounts. We charge 1-1.5%.

The micropayment advantage: a $0.01 API call doesn't need a $0.30 card transaction — it's a database write. We collect margin on the edges (in and out), not the middle.

## Revenue Model

| Stream | Rate | Mechanism |
|--------|------|-----------|
| On-Ramp Fee | 2-3% | Collected when developers fund agent balances via card or bank |
| Off-Ramp Fee | 1-1.5% | Collected when merchants withdraw to external bank accounts |
| Float Yield | Variable | Interest on funds held in the network between load and spend |
| Platform SaaS | $0–$25/mo | Tiered subscriptions (Sandbox → Starter → Growth → Unlimited) + 2.5% card fees |
| PayGate Facilitator | TBD | x402 settlement fees and gas margins (not yet modeled) |

## What We Have Today

Three products that create the two-sided marketplace for agentic commerce:

- **ArisPay** — The settlement layer. API (80+ REST endpoints, 5 payment rails, live on Base mainnet as of 2026-04-16) + Dashboard (`payagent.arispay.app`, two-sided seller + payer, OAuth + magic link auth, multi-org with roles, SaaS billing, compliance). Cryptographic agent identity (Ed25519/RFC 9421), atomic spend limits, velocity circuit breakers. Connected to Fiserv (fiat on-ramp, sandbox API in hand), Global Remit (PayFac/licensing). Also works with x402, Stripe ACP, Visa VIC, Mastercard.
- **PayGate** *(formerly AgFac)* — Merchant-side x402 payment facilitator. Put it in front of your API, agents pay in USDC on Base mainnet. Gas-sponsored, non-custodial, four chains. Two modes: facilitator API or zero-code reverse proxy. npm package: `paygate` v2.0.0. **First customer live: arcticx.ai.**
- **PayAgent** — Agent-side payment SDK. npm packages: `payagent` v2.0.0 + `payagent-mcp` v2.0.0. Delegated-custody via Coinbase CDP (CDP holds the signing key, ArisPay enforces policy-bounded limits — no self-custody path). When an agent hits 402, PayAgent handles payment automatically. Integrations: Vercel AI SDK, LangChain, MCP server for Claude Desktop/Cursor. Budget controls: per-request limits, session budgets, domain allowlists. Postinstall opens the dashboard at `payagent.arispay.app`.

Plus two x402 demonstrations:

- **Ghost-x402** — ZK proof-based private payments with compliance-friendly audit trail. Privacy and regulation in one model.
- **Polymarket-x402** — Proof-of-concept: x402-gated prediction market trading (testnets only). Validates x402 for financial services.

**The two-sided market:** PayGate makes APIs accept agent payments (merchant side). PayAgent makes agents pay for APIs (agent side). ArisPay settles everything underneath.

Foundational partnerships:

- **Live Fiserv IPG contract** — Card processing, tokenization, 3DS v2, merchant boarding.
- **Global Remit LOI** — PayFac partnership for licensing, compliance, and banking rails.

**By the numbers:** 38 Prisma models, 8 apps, 5 packages, ~11,000 lines of backend code. Deployed on Railway + Supabase.

## Competitive Positioning

These aren't competitors — they're potential customers. As of April 2026, ArisPay not only integrates x402 as a rail but operates x402 settlement infrastructure (PayGate) with its first paying customer:

|  | What They Do | Fiat Settlement | Micropayments |
|--|-------------|-----------------|---------------|
| x402 (Coinbase) | HTTP 402 protocol | No — stablecoin only | Yes, but on-chain gas |
| Skyfire | Agent wallets + identity | No — USDC wallets | Yes |
| Stripe ACP | Consumer checkout for agents | Yes | No — $0.30 + 2.9% per tx |
| Visa VIC | Card-based agent payments | Yes | No — card interchange per tx |
| **ArisPay** | **Settlement layer under all** | **Yes — card + bank** | **Yes — ledger, near-zero** |

## The Ask

**Raising:** $2,000,000 seed round
**Pre-money valuation:** $11.3M
**Equity offered:** 15%
**Runway:** 18 months to Series A readiness

## Why Now

The agent payment market is pre-revenue across the entire industry. x402 does $28K/day. Skyfire just exited beta. Visa is in sandbox. The window to establish the settlement network is 12-18 months. This round funds that window.

## How to engage

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