Authentica (authenti.ca) and LiquidTrust (liquidtrust.io) announced that they have developed the world’s first approach to executing a fully autonomous cross-border trade – powered by AI agents and secure escrow payments. At a time of rising tariffs and global trade uncertainty, the companies are launching a six-month program to validate the breakthrough, showing how automation can safely handle supplier sourcing, price negotiation, compliance checks, logistics, and settlement with minimal human involvement and with Micro Escrow™ protection, ensuring that automation does not come at the expense of safety.

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The program will be audited by an independent third party, and backed by cargo and marine insurance.

A Milestone in Autonomous Commerce

“This initiative shows how AI agents can automate the payment to procurement lifecycle so that businesses can focus on their products and customers,” said Mike Borg, Founder and CEO of Authentica. “Every step of the way will be validated with ecosystem partners to demonstrate that agentic AI can safely provide value while maintaining compatibility with existing services and infrastructure.”

“Payments are the nervous system of commerce,” said Saujin Yi, Founder and CEO of Liquid Trust. “The challenge with automation has always been trust and safety. Our programmable trust infrastructure, powered by Micro Escrow™, adds that missing layer of protection. When an AI agent commits funds on behalf of a buyer, those funds move only when predefined, verifiable conditions are met. This is what makes autonomous trade not just possible, but reliable.”

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The Six-Month Program

The initiative will culminate in a live import-export international shipment. Each phase of the program will be tracked to measure speed, cost savings, compliance, and the degree of human oversight required.

Key safeguards include:

• Independent audit by Testing, Inspection and Certification (TICs), validating both process integrity and compliance.
• Insurance coverage, ensuring that the transaction is protected by a global leader in risk transfer.
• Built-in guardrails such as sanctions/KYC screening, human-in-the-loop oversight, and exception-handling protocols.
• Verifiability through BioTags® – microscopic, DNA-based “passports” applied to goods at origin. These markers can be tested at any stage of the supply chain by Authentica’s testing partners, ensuring that the physical shipment matches the contracted transaction.
• Embedded Micro Escrow™ protection, ensuring that payments are only released when automation confirms all pre-set trade conditions have been satisfied, giving both buyers and sellers confidence in a fully autonomous process.