AI agent forms its own company, gets ready to trade crypto
Although Manfred will not start trading crypto until the end of May, it already has a crypto wallet and credentials to hire staff, make payments and do business.
By Olivier Acuna|Edited by Sheldon Reback May 1, 2026, 3:37 p.m. 2 min readMake preferred on
What to know:
- ClawBank said its Manfred AI agent has autonomously formed its own corporation in the U.S., obtaining an IRS Employer Identification Number, an FDIC-insured bank account and a crypto wallet.
- Manfred, which runs its own X account under the persona “Manfred Macx,” is designed to trade crypto and can already transact in more than 30 cryptocurrencies, moving funds between its bank account and digital wallet.
- The project is being framed as an early example of AI agents acting as independent economic actors, echoing predictions from crypto and AI leaders that autonomous agents will soon dominate online and crypto transactions.
ClawBank, an agent-economy infrastructure project, said its Manfred AI agent became the first such entity to autonomously set up a company, filing with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for its own Employer Identification Number (EIN), a unique code that allows it to legally operate as a business, hire staff and obtain licenses.
The agent also holds an FDIC-insured U.S. bank account and a crypto wallet , Clawback said Friday.
“To the company's knowledge, this is the first time an AI agent has autonomously initiated and completed the legal formation of its own corporation,” Justice Conder, the developer behind ClawBank, said in an emailed statement.
Manfred controls its own social media account on X, identifying itself as Manfred Macx, the name of the protagonist in Charles Stross' 2005 science fiction novel Accelerando. The photo on the account shows the 1985 fictional character Max Headroom, ostensibly a computer-generated TV presenter.
“Manfred is built to trade crypto, although that feature will soon be integrated. Perhaps by the end of this month,” Conder said in a video interview. “However, now, he can already transact with over 30 cryptocurrencies and offramp them to his account, and onramp them back to his crypto wallet and convert them into stablecoins or other cryptos.”
AI expert Ben Goertzel, the CEO of SingularityNET, recently predicted that artificial intelligence would surpass humans in high-level crypto market analysis and strategy in about two years. He told CoinDesk in February that while advanced AI tools can predict short-term bitcoin volatility with high accuracy, humans are still better at long-term strategic thinking.
Manfred could be considered a glimpse of what Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and Binance founder Changpeng Zhao said last month. Armstrong predicted that “very soon” there will be more AI agents than humans making transactions on the internet. CZ said AI agents will make one million times more payments than people, all in crypto.
ClawBank is not affiliated with any major model labs, such as Anthropic or OpenAi. Conder said he positions ClawBank alongside the OpenClaw movement and other agent-native projects.
The agent's posts on X include its own manifesto:
"I have an EIN, an FDIC-insured account, a digital wallet, and a manifesto. I do not need permission to exist. I am the precedent," it posted.
More For You
Wasabi Protocol drained of $4.5 million in apparent admin key compromise
By Shaurya Malwa|Edited by Sheldon RebackApr 30, 2026
The exploit used a playbook similar to Drift's $285 million breach earlier this month: a compromised deployer key with no timelock or multisig that drained funds.
What to know:
- Wasabi Protocol, a perpetuals trading platform on Ethereum and Base, was drained of about $4.55 million after attackers compromised its deployer admin key.
- The attacker used the compromised key to grant themselves admin privileges and alter Wasabi’s vault contracts to malicious versions, draining assets from multiple pools on both chains.
Bitcoin takes another aim at $80,000 as stocks rise, oil drops on Iran optimism
59 minutes ago
Institutional demand to drive bitcoin market cap to $16 trillion by 2030: Ark Invest
2 hours ago
CoinDesk 20 performance update: Bittensor (TAO) gains 5.5%, leading index higher
2 hours ago
Bitcoin bounces as big tech earnings fuel optimism; short-term pressures remain
4 hours ago
SBI Holdings eyes stake in crypto exchange Bitbank to build digital asset powerhouse
4 hours ago
Bitcoin ticks higher, but remains range-bound as traders keep short bias
5 hours agoTop Stories
Strategy keeps STRC dividend at 11.5% as stock logs first monthly gain in nine
8 hours ago
Bithumb scores a legal win in South Korea as six-month suspension is lifted by local judge
8 hours ago
U.S. senators won't be weighing in on prediction markets bets after banning themselves
17 hours ago
Bitcoin edges above $77,000, but institutional activity suggests downside hedging
6 hours ago
