Coinbase Links Up With Linux Foundation to Launch x402 Foundation

Coinbase is joining with the Linux Foundation to launch the x402 Foundation, an industry group created to oversee the development of a new internet payments standard.

The foundation will steward the x402 protocol, which lets websites request and receive payments as part of normal web traffic, after Coinbase contributed the technology to the Linux Foundation to place it under neutral governance.

“The internet was built on open protocols,” Linux Foundation Executive Director Jim Zemlin said in a statement. “The x402 Foundation will create an open, community-governed home to develop these capabilities in the open, ensuring they evolve with transparency, interoperability, and broad participation across the ecosystem.”

Under Linux Foundation governance, the x402 protocol will remain vendor-neutral, the Linux Foundation said, allowing for “transparent, community-driven growth, ensuring accessibility, and supporting sustainability.”

Erik Reppel, head of engineering for the Coinbase Developer Platform, said Coinbase will remain involved as a founding participant while the foundation manages development of the technology.

“Coinbase is a founding member and the original creator of the protocol,” Reppel told Decrypt. “Both Coinbase and Base are part of the initial set of industry participants supporting the foundation’s migration to an open-source model. Members will help with governance to help guide the future of x402.”

Launched in 2025 by Coinbase’s developer platform, x402 revived the long-unused HTTP 402 “Payment Required” status code to create a native payment layer for the web, allowing websites and APIs to request payment directly during normal HTTP interactions before granting access to content or services.

Developers have begun experimenting with the protocol as AI agents increasingly perform tasks for users online. Projects, including Sam Altman’s World, are integrating x402 into tools that let agents prove they represent real people, and infrastructure efforts like MoonPay’s Open Wallet Standard are adding support for the protocol.

Companies participating in the launch of the x402 foundation include Google, Stripe, Visa, Mastercard, Shopify, Cloudflare, and the Solana Foundation.

“The shift toward agentic commerce requires cloud infrastructure that is as open as the protocols it supports,” Managing Director, Web3 and Digital Assets at Google Cloud, James Tromans, said in a statement. “By joining the x402 Foundation, Google is reinforcing its commitment to interoperable standards that enable secure, AI-driven transactions across platforms.”

“Solana has been one of the earliest adopters of x402, driving nearly 65% of x402 transaction volume this year, and has a growing ecosystem building products with x402 payments,” Head of AI Growth, Solana Foundation, Rishin Sharma said in a statement. “We’re eager to support the x402 Foundation to build the future of agentic payments and onboard more developers, merchants, and agents to pay-per-request models with stablecoins.”

The x402 Foundation will operate under Linux Foundation governance to support community-driven development of the standard. Organizations that contribute to or use the technology can join the foundation and help guide its development. Early priorities include maintaining interoperability across implementations and supporting developers and merchants building services around the standard.

Shan Aggarwal, chief business officer at Coinbase, said the company views the project as an effort to create a more open infrastructure for the future of online payments.

“Agents are going to buy, sell, and transact on our behalf. They will need a payment rail that’s open, interoperable, and doesn’t require a human clicking confirm purchase,” Aggarwal told Decrypt. “That’s x402, and now it’s governed by the community.”