X402

AI agents are beginning to act as autonomous customers, paying for data, computing power, APIs and online tools. Stablecoins, led by USDC in early measured activity, are gaining traction for small machine-to-machine payments while card networks work to adapt.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong pushed back on crypto companies that abandon blockchain branding to reposition around artificial intelligence. He argued that crypto infrastructure could become a key foundation for autonomous software agents, while critics warn that machine-speed money still needs stronger safeguards.

Coinbase Business users are set to accept payments from AI agents through the exchange-incubated x402 protocol, with USDC payments powered by Coinbase Payments. The rollout also adds agent-focused trading views for exchange users and a developer SDK designed to bring x402 payment acceptance into APIs and web services.

The Linux Foundation has launched the x402 Foundation with 40 members, including Ripple, Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Stripe, Google, Amazon Web Services and Cloudflare. The protocol processed about 75 million transactions worth $24 million over the past 30 days, highlighting demand for small stablecoin payments between software agents.