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AI agents could drive more stablecoin payments, Coinbase-backed protocol
Coinbase has built x402 for agentic payments and Cloudflare, MoonPay, Visa, and Mastercard are also developing systems, though adoption and liability questions remain unresolved.
CoinDesk reports that the next wave of crypto users may be software rather than people, as AI agents begin transacting on behalf of users and need rails to buy services such as data, computing power, and online tools.
The outlet says stablecoins, especially USDC, are already being used for small, high-frequency machine-to-machine payments, while card networks still fit larger purchases that require credit, refunds, and dispute protections.
Coinbase has developed x402, a payment protocol for AI agents, and MoonPay’s PayBox is designed to give agents access to users’ cards and crypto wallets, while Cloudflare is rolling out Cloudflare Wallets and cloudflare.pay to let agents make online purchases within preset limits.
However, CoinDesk notes that adoption is still in its early stage and open issues remain around security, funding, and liability, even as companies compete over which form of money AI agents will use.