Basis Theory Forms Consortium, Publishes White Paper on Agentic Commerce

PR Newswire

Thu, Sep 18, 2025, 12:00 PM 4 min read

New collaboration unites AI researchers, innovators, and networks to advance agent-led commerce.

, /PRNewswire/ -- Basis Theory today announced the formation of an Agentic Commerce Consortium with Lithic, Crossmint, Skyfire Systems, Rye, Channel3, Catalog, New Generation, and Henry Labs. This consortium is a global initiative, uniting AI researchers, solution providers, and networks committed to building the infrastructure to support agent-led commerce.

Together, the consortium is releasing its inaugural white paper, Empowering Merchant-Controlled AI Commerce: An Open Agentic Commerce White Paper. The paper lays the foundation for understanding and enabling agentic commerce, a future where intelligent agents autonomously research, recommend, and transact on behalf of consumers and businesses.

Led by Basis Theory, the Consortium will serve as a collaborative hub for organizations and experts driving innovation in this space. Together, members will research emerging agentic commerce models, develop shared frameworks, and create technical standards that accelerate adoption.

"Rarely, if ever, have we seen consumer behavior change so quickly and in such a meaningful way as we have over the past couple of years since the launch of ChatGPT. We are nearing the point where over a billion consumers are consistently using chatbots and answer engines for all of their daily needs, including shopping and commerce more broadly, and it's requiring us to rethink how the internet economy is going to work in the future," said Colin Luce, CEO of Basis Theory. "The Agentic Commerce Consortium is our attempt at signaling to the market that 'it's going to take a village' to capitalize on the opportunity, and we are proud to play the role of facilitator by bringing together this ecosystem. Each individual part of the stack will need to be addressed with careful consideration and rigor, which requires intense entrepreneurial focus, hence our excitement to partner with builders like Crossmint, Lithic, Rye, and Skyfire, among many others."

This protocol allows merchants to opt into agentic commerce in a controlled, dynamic, and on their terms way, as opposed to the status quo of being scraped by anonymous bots that could be nefarious bad actors or competitors. The Agentic Commerce Consortium fully supports a merchant's right to participate while simultaneously recognizing the difficulties of managing priorities in today's environment.

This announcement comes from Basis Theory on the heels of first-of-its-kind partnerships with both Visa, for their Intelligent Commerce offering, and Mastercard's Agent Pay.