Ocean — Per-Action AI Agent on Arc

Ocean is a crypto market intelligence and trading app where an AI agent pays for its own data in real time using Circle's x402 nanopayments settled on Arc L1. Every query the agent makes triggers live USDC micro-payments: $0.01 for market data, $0.01 for token profile, $0.01 for on-chain contract info. A full 7-tool research query costs ~$0.08 total — the same calls on Ethereum L1 would cost ~$27 in gas. Arc makes this 340× cheaper and turns per-call billing from a thought experiment into a working product. Ocean implements three core concepts. First, Pay Per Action: every API call is a real on-chain USDC settlement with a transaction hash visible on ArcScan. Second, Real Integration: Ocean pays for real CoinGecko data using x402 — no API key, no subscription, payment per request. Third, A2A Payment Loop: when Ocean detects a signal opportunity, it calls an autonomous Signal Agent that has its own EOA wallet and its own pricing ($0.005 per signal). The Signal Agent then autonomously pays $0.01 from its own wallet to the Token API to fetch the data it needs. No human initiated that transaction. Two separate on-chain hashes, two distinct wallet addresses, three payment levels — this is a genuine agent economy, not a simulation.