People keep asking “what is x402?” — here’s why you should care, because it could be the foundation of a self-driving AI economy.

x402 is an open payment protocol developed by Coinbase that allows AI Agents to make payments on-chain using stablecoins (like USDC) — no API keys, cards, or registration required. The A16z “State of Crypto 2025” report predicts Agentic Payments could reach $30 trillion by 2030, and x402 is the infrastructure layer of that era.

They call x402 the “Payments MCP” — if HTTP helps the web transfer data, x402 helps AI transfer value, turning the internet into an automated payment network for machines.

Backers: coinbase + Cloudflare

Deployed on Base, also cross-chain (Solana, Polygon, Near…). Projects like $VIRTUAL , PING , GoKiteAI140, Questflow, Heurist_ai157 all use x402. You can check it at 👉 x402scan.com .

Why is it important?

Gasless payments: Instant payments, no gas fees for users.

Agent-to-agent: Fully automated pay-per-use, sub, microtx.

Privacy + ZK: Partnering with Brevis_zk and zkKYC protocols to secure transactions.

Multi-chain + stablecoins: AI Agents can pay across the network with USDC.

AI Agents will soon have wallets, cards, and the right to transact. As trillions of dollars flow through machine transactions, x402 will be the infrastructure that collects fees on each data stream.

The internet has connected humans. Now, x402 will connect the world of AI. #x402 #x402协议