Coinbase and other platforms began addressing this gap in May 2025. The x402 protocol allows servers to request payment via a 402 status code, including a price. Clients sign stablecoin transfers, typically USDC, reissue the request with payment, and receive the data. The process is instant, requiring no account, card, or prior relationship.
This capability is particularly appealing to the AI sector, where autonomous agents cannot open bank accounts or sign contracts but can execute transactions. Google has integrated x402 into its agent payment protocol, and Cloudflare includes it in its agent toolkit.
x402 reports handling approximately 75 million transactions in the past 30 days—about 29 per second—facilitating $24 million in transfers between 94,000 buyers and 22,000 sellers.
This translates to an average payment of 32 cents per transaction, validating the machine-to-machine payment model. Traditional card networks struggle to process such small charges profitably. While $24 million monthly represents a fraction of daily volumes managed by x402’s top members, it highlights the protocol’s expanding role in decentralized commerce.
