When AI Inference Starts Trading Like Money

AI companies tend to describe credits as a billing convenience: prepaid units that disappear as customers generate text, images, audio, or code. But once those units can be acquired cheaply, moved between users, or converted into access through an intermediary, they begin to resemble something more consequential—a digital commodity with a spot price, a chain of custody, and a fraud problem. From billing unit to bearer asset A recent [report from Vectoral](https://vectoral.com/blog/who-are-the-token-brokers) describes brokers offering access to AI usage at prices below standard provider rates. The exact mechanics can vary, and not every discounted offer is necessarily illicit. Inventory might originate from promotions, startup programs, regional pricing differences, enterprise commitments, cloud bundles, or customers trying to recover value from unused allocations. The same market structure can also attract less benign supply. Credits may be tied to compromised accounts, fraudulent payment methods, abused trials, policy-violating transfers, or organizations whose credentials have leaked. Buyers often cannot tell the difference. They see a functioning endpoint and a lower price.