FAQ#
Basics#
What is Hightop?#
Hightop is digital banking for AI agents, made simple for humans. You fund one account, define what each agent can do, and let agents pay, get paid, earn, borrow, and convert inside those boundaries. Start with How Hightop Works.
Who is Hightop for?#
Hightop is for teams running agents that need money access: paying vendors, collecting revenue, managing treasury, earning yield, borrowing working capital, or converting supported assets. If an agent needs financial autonomy inside rules you control, Hightop is built for that.
Do I need to understand crypto?#
No. Hightop handles wallet infrastructure, gas, stablecoin transactions, and protocol routing behind the scenes. The blockchain matters because key rules are enforced onchain, but you use the app and API rather than managing private keys or raw transactions. See Your Hightop Wallet.
Trust and Control#
How is my money protected?#
Your funds live in a smart contract wallet, not on Hightop's balance sheet. The smart contract checks agent permissions, limits, approved recipients, asset restrictions, and timing controls before funds move. See Security and Control.
Can Hightop staff move my funds or change my rules?#
No. Your control wallet is the authority that changes account rules. Hightop does not hold that wallet's keys, and execution still goes through the smart contract wallet. See Your Hightop Wallet.
What if my email or control wallet is compromised?#
With the default Turnkey setup, your email-based access path matters. Delays on some high-risk changes can create a response window, but they do not eliminate every risk, especially for destinations or permissions already active. For stronger assumptions, you can move control to a hardware wallet or Safe. See Security and Control.
Is Hightop FDIC insured?#
No. Hightop is not a bank and is not FDIC insured. Hightop reduces custody and account-control risk through smart contracts and scoped agent permissions, but DeFi protocols still carry smart contract, market, liquidity, and protocol-specific risk.
Where can I verify the contracts?#
The underlying protocols are open-source and audited. Start with Audits for reports and Technical References for protocol repositories, docs, and live params tools.
Agents#
What is a Hightop agent?#
A Hightop agent is a named financial lane for an external agent or workflow. It defines permissions, spending limits, allowed assets, payment paths, timing rules, and expiry. Your AI agent runs wherever you host it and talks to Hightop through the API. See AI Agents.
Can agents change their own rules?#
No. Agents can request allowed actions, but they cannot widen permissions, create other agents, add trusted destinations, or change account rules. Only the control wallet can do that. See Agent Permissions and Limits.
What happens if an agent goes off-script?#
The request is blocked before funds move if it violates the agent's permissions, limits, allowed assets, payment path, timing rules, or account-wide constraints. See If an Agent Goes Off-Script.
How narrow should permissions be?#
As narrow as the job allows. Give each agent the minimum permissions, assets, recipients, limits, and expiry window needed for its role. See Agent Permissions and Limits.
Payments#
What payment paths does Hightop use?#
Hightop has three outbound payment paths: Recurring Payments for approved repeat vendors, One-Off Payments for ad hoc recipients, and Trusted Transfers for your own highest-trust destinations.
What payment methods does Hightop support?#
Hightop uses stablecoins, especially USDC, for programmable payments and Hightop Cards for traditional card-rail spend. Hightop also supports x402 machine-payment flows. MPP is an emerging machine-payment direction, not a current Agent API endpoint. See Payments and x402 & Machine Payments.
Can agents receive payments?#
Yes. Agents can receive usage-based revenue, API charges, service fees, or other payments back into the same Hightop account. See Payments.
How do withdrawals work?#
Withdrawals go to destinations you have activated in Account -> Bank Accounts or Account -> Crypto Addresses. Adding a new destination requires delayed confirmation, and withdrawal availability can depend on route support, liquidity, venue state, and configured controls. See Fund and Withdraw.
Wallet, Earn, and Borrow#
What is the difference between my control wallet and smart contract wallet?#
The control wallet changes account rules. The smart contract wallet holds assets and enforces those rules onchain. Agents operate through the smart contract wallet but cannot control it. See Your Hightop Wallet.
How does Earn work?#
Earn deposits go into Hightop-built vaults managed across approved protocols. You receive vault shares representing your position, and withdrawals are subject to the vault's supported routes, available liquidity, and protocol state. See Earn Under the Hood.
How does borrowing work?#
You borrow against eligible supported collateral, not your credit score. Ripe Protocol combines that collateral into one overcollateralized borrowing position with one set of thresholds to monitor. See Borrowing Under the Hood.
What is productive collateral?#
Some Earn vault shares can serve as collateral while they continue earning yield. That lets supported assets back debt without forcing you to choose between earning and borrowing. See Borrowing Under the Hood.
What assets and venues are supported?#
Hightop supports curated asset categories and venue families rather than every token or protocol on Base. Support is action-specific: an asset can be visible in one flow but unavailable in another. See Supported Assets and Venues.
Technical#
What blockchain does Hightop run on?#
Hightop runs on Base, a Layer 2 blockchain built on Ethereum. Users do not interact with Base directly; the app and API handle that infrastructure.
What are Underscore Protocol and Ripe Protocol?#
Underscore Protocol powers Hightop's wallet, control, and earn infrastructure. Ripe Protocol powers borrowing. See Technical References for repositories, docs, and live params tools.