x402 Payments on Base Pass 138 Million as Agent Spending Expands

Cumulative payments through x402 on Base topped 138 million by the third quarter of 2026, as developers funded AI agents to pay for online services, computing power and data.

The count rose from about 1,500 in mid-2025. More than 87% of transactions were under 10 cents, an amount at which card processing fees can exceed a service’s price.

The x402 protocol lets software agents pay for online services with crypto without requiring a person to approve each purchase. Developers can fund an agent’s wallet with stablecoins, including USD Coin (USDC), and the agent can pay for information, computing resources or software tools while completing tasks.

By the third quarter of 2026, wallets made their first payment a median 18 minutes after their first deposit, down from 73 days in late 2025. Roughly two-thirds of new wallets made a payment within an hour of receiving funds.

Repeat funding also became more common: about 90% of qualifying active wallets received another deposit within 30 days, compared with roughly 71% a year earlier.

Coinbase introduced x402 in May 2025 and later partnered with Cloudflare to support its development. A foundation for x402 launched in July under the Linux Foundation. Its 40 members included Visa, Mastercard, Stripe and Google.