Coinbase Turns to Stablecoins in Race to Power AI Payments

Hackathon participants built tools like chatbots charging cents per response and group-chat marketplaces that bypass banks entirely. The common thread was stablecoins — tokens pegged to the U.S. dollar — which allow instant, programmable payments without volatility.

Coinbase believes this shift marks the start of what it calls “agentic commerce,” where machines and apps settle their own bills in real time. To make that possible, the company has launched x402, an open-source protocol designed to move stablecoins seamlessly across the internet.

Why Coinbase Is Betting Big

The exchange is pushing deeper into payments as its core trading revenues face tougher competition. With the U.S. now passing its first law regulating stablecoins, Coinbase sees legal clarity opening the door for developers and businesses to use them as mainstream infrastructure.

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Former Coinbase executive Vishal Gupta described it simply: “Clarity unlocks the next wave.”

Growing Competition

Coinbase isn’t alone. Stripe has been acquiring blockchain infrastructure, PayPal issued its own stablecoin, and Visa and Mastercard still dominate global payments. For Coinbase, the hope is to become the developer toolkit of choice, similar to how Amazon Web Services became the backbone of the internet.

The Bigger Picture

Stablecoins are already popular in countries battling inflation, but their role in AI-driven commerce is still untested. Entrenched payment systems and slow consumer habits remain obstacles. Still, the weekend’s projects hinted at how crypto could finally move past speculation and into practical, everyday use.

Source: Bloomberg

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