Why Coinbase’s team-up with Amazon, Google and Stripe can turbo-charge AI agents

Coinbase is joining the x402 Foundation alongside tech titans like Amazon, Google, and Stripe — and that is very bullish for artificial intelligence agents using cryptocurrencies for payments, venture capitalists say.

The x402 protocol is designed as a universal standard for embedding payments directly into web interactions. It allows AI agents, APIs and applications to transfer monetary value as seamlessly as they exchange data over the internet.

“We anticipate seeing massive growth in the stablecoin payments sector as AI transactions increase,” Min Teo, managing partner at Ethereal Ventures, told DL News. “AI agents cannot open bank accounts, but they can own crypto wallets.”

Crypto companies’ push into AI comes as interest in agentic payments is skyrocketing. By 2030, the market will reach as high as $5 trillion, according to McKinsey.

All businesses — brands, retailers, marketplaces, logistics groups, commerce platforms and payments providers — will need to adjust to a new operating environment revolving around AI agents using crypto for payments, McKinsey wrote in October.

“Given stablecoins’ enablement of near-instant settlement, very low transaction costs, programmable constraints through smart contracts, and transparent audit trails, they are the perfect currency for autonomous agent transactions," Teo said.

And many of the cryptocurrency industry’s most prominent voices are aligned. Those include Coinbase CEO Brain Armstrong, former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao and Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire.

“There will be more AI agents transacting online than humans very soon,” Armstrong said on X after the foundation’s launch.

What’s x402?

The new x402 foundation is housed under the Linux Foundation, a non-profit hub for developers and organisations to code, manage, and scale open technology projects and ecosystems. It places the protocol, which is developed by Coinbase, under neutral governance.

"The internet was built on open protocols," said Jim Zemlin, CEO of the Linux Foundation, 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."

Several big tech and crypto players are members in the organisation. Members include Amazon Web Services, American Express, Circle, Cloudflare, Coinbase, Google, KakaoPay, Mastercard, Microsoft, Polygon Labs, PPRO, Shopify, Solana Foundation, Stripe, and Visa, the Linux Foundation said.

Crypto market movers

• Bitcoin is up 0.7% over the past 24 hours, trading at $67,167.
• Ethereum is up 0.8% over the past 24 hours at $2,067.

What we’re reading 

• Clarity Act will ‘progress’ within 48 hours, Coinbase chief legal officer says — DL News
• Russia is about to roll the dice on crypto regulation. Here’s its playbook — DL News
• Google Quantum Paper Speeds Up Timeline for Threat to Crypto to 3 Years — Unchained
• Bye TACO, hello NACHO — Milk Road
• Coinbase: Fannie Mae mortgage initiative links cryptocurrency with real economy — DL News

Lance Datskoluo is DL News’ Europe-based markets correspondent. Got a tip? Email him at lance@dlnews.com