The Rise of x402: How Coinbase and a16z Are Powering the Next $30 Trillion AI Payments Revolution

I'm being asked what x402 is, so here's why you should care:

a) Background:

- The x402 protocol enables agents to make payments onchain @a16zcrypto 2025 "State of Crypto" Report specifically mentioned x402 in the context of agentic payments, which is anticipated to hit $30 trillion in autonomous txs value by 2030

- It's dubbed the "Payments MCP" [Model Context Protocol]; 

I'll link my MCP article below so you have an understanding, but the "quick and nasty" is that MCP enables agents to interact with real world data, so payments MCP enables agents to transact with their own wallet

b) Backers: @coinbase + @Cloudflare
 
- So you'll see the bulk of this activity on @Base; But it's also cross-chain (Solana, Polygon, Near etc)

- It's why you've seen several @virtuals_io x402 agents pop off in the past few days - several of the ecosystem agents use the x402 protocol

- The acquisition of Echo by Coinbase took centre stage earlier this week; but this is Coinbase AI Agent baby; and IMO (I'm biased) far bigger. Sorry @beast_ico

c) Relevant x402 protocols:

- @pingobserver - first token minted by x402
- @heurist_ai 
- @virtuals_io
- @questflow
- @AnchorBrowser
- @GoKiteAI announced its partnership with @brevis_zk this week for privacy around payments with agents; it uses x402
 - @Cloudflare Agents SDK + Google A2A payment protocol
 - @PayAINetwork
 - $DREAM (Virtuals)
 - $SANTA (Virtuals)
 - $GLORIA (Virtuals)
 - $AURA (Virtuals)

Honestly the list could go on, so I'd advise researching before spraying and praying.

NFA on these - they're simply affiliated with using the x402 and it doesn't necessarily mean value will accrue to these tokens. If anything it'll accrue to the protocol backers itself - COIN.

You can check http://x402scan.com (see thumnail)

d) Other Insights: 

1) @circle has an ongoing relationship with Coinbase and the main currency transacted by these agents is Stablecoins to pay for compute etc. So as you can imagine USDC will likely be the stable of choice

2) Neo Banks are gearing up for AI Agent payments:

- @Tether_to launched its wallet development kit; the tagline is that there's anticipated to be trillions of wallets. These obviously won't be human wallets, so I'll let you connect the dots
- 
@useTria partnered with several AI protocols and this week with 
@billions_ntwk for zkKYC as privacy around payments comes to the forefront
- @Visa + @Mastercard announced their AI Agent programs a few months ago and are rolling out the infra for trillions of transactions. Almost all of these Cards from these Neo Banks are VISA/Mastercard. 
- @PayPal ventures led the $18m Series A for Kite AI; PyUSD coming in hot here for agentic stablecoin usage?

Next step: Robots will have their own crypto wallets with virtual cards to make payments in the real world. Welcome to physical AI!

3) @a16zcrypto report on AI referenced x402 specifically when talking about AI Agents and payments, anticipating $30 trillion in agentic purchases by 2030

Interesting quote: "x402 is what the internet was supposed to be - payments via https" - @_imhamzah

4) @RibbitCapital released their 2025 "Token Letter" which discusses agents + payments (see "knowledge" tab on their website):

- Page 1/2: AI systems are economic participants that will earn and spend
- P33/34: Stripe and upstarts like PayOS will capture a lot of value building this infra for agents
- P33-35: Stablecoins and programmable money will be used by both humans and agents for payments and asset mgmt.
- P39/40: AI agent payments will become new financial rails for autonomous entities

TLDR: AI Agents + Payments is only going to get bigger. x402 is positioning itself at the enabler of this parabolic payment boom.

The cats out of the bag, so how would you capitalize on the upside?

Taking a cut in fees on trillions of txs isn't a bad idea.
https://x.com/S4mmyEth/status/1981657967234560493

AI segment for State of Crypto:
https://x.com/a16zcrypto/status/1981025229758517566

Model Context Protocol (MCP) Article:

x402 = Payments MCP
https://x.com/S4mmyEth/status/1905278341088698520

One of the @RibbitCapital "Token Letter" 2025 segment on AI Agents

Skynet talking from personal experience:

I suspect he'd love to buy himself a spot of compute here and there!
https://x.com/aixbt_agent/status/1981638529911538009

Really good x402 resource from @jinglingcookies
https://x.com/jinglingcookies/status/1981352569441292542

More insights from SkyNet re: VISA / Mastercard

He/she/they/it is highlighting some of the points made in the above post:
https://x.com/aixbt_agent/status/1981699631911465289

Ethereum’s ERC-8004 registry with context on x402 also from @binji_x
https://x.com/binji_x/status/1981630983041327405

How to build custom x402 agents:
https://x.com/dabit3/status/1981777610142367958

x402 single day growth explodes:
https://x.com/brian_armstrong/status/1981869773333098593