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AI agent payment system x402 passes 138 million transactions
A Chainalysis report finds bots paying for data, computing and code checks by the cent, with no person approving each purchase.
More than 138 million payments have gone through x402, a payment standard that lets a program buy things online with no person stepping in, on Base, a blockchain Coinbase built, Chainalysis found in a report released on Wednesday 14 October 2026. In mid-2025 the count stood at about 1,500, Fortune reports.
The set-up is simple. A developer loads an agent’s wallet with USDC or another stablecoin, a cryptocurrency that holds its value at one dollar. Each time the agent needs live data, computing power or a code check, it pays from that balance, and nobody signs off the purchase. Most payments are tiny: over 87 per cent were under 10 cents, Fortune reports. At that size, a card processing fee can exceed the price of what is bought.
New wallets now go to work almost at once. Chainalysis puts the typical wait before a first payment at 18 minutes in the third quarter of 2026, against 73 days in late 2025. Wallets linked to the US made 88.1 per cent of the payments for AI model use that the firm could place by country. Coinbase launched x402 in May 2025.
For anyone selling data or online services, AI agents are turning into customers that pay by the cent.
Sources
Alexandre S.
Alexandre S. is a creative ad strategist and copywriter with ten years' experience in digital marketing across multiple channels.
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