X402

Petrobras is testing the Cardano blockchain in research projects tied to sustainable aviation fuel and its partly renewable Diesel R. The work focuses on emissions-benefit traceability, double-counting prevention and fuel data records across production, transport and use.

Ripple has expanded its XRPL AI Starter Kit with support for the Machine Payments Protocol, a standard backed by Stripe and Tempo. The update gives developers new tools for AI agents to make automated payments in XRP and ledger-issued tokens such as RLUSD, while broader stablecoin session support still depends on a proposed ledger upgrade.

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.