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10/15/2026

AI Agents Drove 138 Million Crypto Payments via Coinbase’s x402 Protocol

What happened: A new Chainalysis report revealed that AI agents completed more than 138 million payments through Coinbase’s x402 protocol from mid-2025 to Q3 2026, up from just 1,500 a year prior.

AI Agents Drove 138 Million Crypto Payments via Coinbase’s x402 Protocol

What happened: A new Chainalysis report revealed that AI agents completed more than 138 million payments through Coinbase’s x402 protocol from mid-2025 to Q3 2026, up from just 1,500 a year prior. The majority—87%—were microtransactions between $0.001 and $0.10, with U.S.-linked wallets accounting for 88.1% of identifiable AI model inference spending. The median wallet age at first x402 payment dropped sharply from 73 days to just 18 minutes, indicating rapid, automated wallet creation. Total x402 ecosystem volume (including Solana) surpassed 165 million transactions and $50 million in value.

Why it matters: The surge in AI-driven crypto payments signals a shift toward automated, machine-to-machine commerce, with BlackRock’s Will Su noting institutional interest in 24/7, low-value transaction rails. However, TRM Labs cautioned that much of the activity may be scripts or self-dealing rather than true autonomous agents, suggesting headline figures could overstate genuine AI economic activity. The findings underscore the growing intersection of AI and crypto infrastructure, but also highlight the need for more granular analysis of what constitutes “agentic” transactions.

Source: Decrypt