Coinbase’s x402 Transactions Soar, Confounding Expectations

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Have I got a tale for you! In an act of sheer ingenuity, ol’ Coinbase introduced a contrivance in May known as x402. This curious online payments protocol allows AI agents-those clever digital phantoms-to exchange stablecoins, of all things! Within a mere thirty days, this baby’s transaction numbers ballooned over 10,000%!

Now, when explaining this marvel, Coinbase seemed as proud as a peacock, boasting it had “fixed the internet’s first mistake” by breathing life back into the Internet Communication Protocol’s nearly forgotten Hypertext Transfer Protocol 402, or HTTP 402. This resurrection, according to them, ushers in a smooth as butter payment system that perfectly mates with the internet.

Whether you be an AI or merely a mortal, you can simply demand a service, get presented with a HTTP 402 “Payment Required” prompt-quite genteel, isn’t it?-and then, sharp as a tack, send a signed stablecoin payment. Without so much as an inkling for a credit card required! 🎩✨

Between the 14th and the 20th of October, nearly 500,000 of these x402 transactions took place! That’s a fanciful leap of 10,780% over just four weeks before. Dune Analytics, an observant fellow, noted it all. On a cooler day, specifically Friday, the numbers hit an astounding 239,505 transactions, whilst Thursday witnessed a bustling $332,000 in transaction volume. How delightful! 📈

In what could be merely gossip from a tech-focused venture capital firm’s crypto arm (a16z, to be exact), we hear whispers that these autonomous transactions could someday add up to $30 trillion by 2030. Their eyes are set on a future where AI agents can cover their own Tab at the dance hall without needing a chaperone managing API calls, storage, or computation.

There are whispers of AI agents already juggling crypto, making decisions, trading on whiffs and whispers of market data, selling, buying, and instantly optimizing portfolios all on their lonesome. Ingenious! Or is it? 🤔

Coins and Tokens Aplenty-The Rise of x402

Why stop at smooth transactions? Developers, with their ever-whirling creative gears, are now fashioning tokens to hop onto this x402 bandwagon. KuCoin Ventures, less a venture, more a funfair, notes the birth of a plethora of x402-powered memecoin launches on the platform X.

CoinGecko, the great ledger, perhaps feeling the electricity in the air, now beads x402 tokens a new ecosystem to its perusal. And lo, it has swelled to a near $180 million market, sprouting fast like spring onions, a hearty 266% in mere hours! 🌱💰

Ethereum: The Perfect Linchpin for HTTP 402

According to Coilasse’s own Kevin Leffew and Lincoln Murr, Ethereum, that robust and mighty chain, holds the chalice that makes HTTP 402 more trusty than a handshake at a gentlemen’s club. They claim Ethereum makes tangled invoices and legal wrangles smoother than a baby’s behind. Atomic payments, programmable policies, and especially those composable wallets! Ethereum, with its stablecoins, provides precisely the ingredient y’all need. 🧲🔗

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2025-10-26 07:38