The x402 payment protocol, developed by Coinbase, has seen a 152% increase in monthly active senders over the past 30 days, reaching 43,100 users by mid-October 2026. The protocol, launched in May 2025, facilitates stablecoin payments directly within HTTP request flows, primarily targeting AI agents that require automated access to data and compute services.
Activity is concentrated across three blockchains. The Base network leads with approximately 32,000 active senders, followed by Algorand with 9,100 and Solana with 1,600. The broader x402 ecosystem currently includes about 94,060 buyers and 22,000 sellers.
Over the last 30 days, the protocol processed 75.41 million transactions, resulting in a settled volume of $24.24 million. The infrastructure is supported by companies including Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, Google, and AWS, with the goal of enabling an autonomous agent economy.
Unlike traditional stablecoin usage focused on trading and DeFi, x402 enables machine-to-machine commerce. By utilizing the 402 status code, the system allows software to execute payments in USDC without the need for manual account management or API keys.
