Visa, Mastercard and Ripple back x402 as agent payments average 32 cents
Forty companies now govern x402, the protocol Coinbase built and handed away. It settled about $24 million last month across 75 million payments.
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Summary
- The Linux Foundation has formally launched the x402 Foundation, backed by major card networks and tech firms, to standardize internet-native payments between software agents.
- The x402 protocol activates the long-reserved HTTP 402 “Payment Required” code to let clients pay servers directly with small stablecoin transfers, typically USDC, without accounts or prior relationships.
- X402 processed about 75 million transactions totaling $24 million over the past 30 days, mostly sub-dollar payments that enable machine-to-machine commerce but still represent a tiny volume compared with traditional payment networks.
