Coinbase’s x402 hits 100M agentic transactions on Base

Chainalysis data show wallets using Coinbase’s x402 protocol generated more than 100 million transactions on the Base network within roughly nine months after the protocol launched late in 2024. The protocol enables software agents to complete stablecoin payments via web requests without human approval. An early memecoin experiment called PING required payments through x402 to mint tokens; that experiment drove a surge in activity that later subsided but left sustained usage.

Chainalysis reported that the share of transfer value from transactions larger than $1 rose from roughly 49% in early 2025 to about 95% by early 2026. Weekly wallet retention for agentic payments on Base has trended upward over the same period.

x402 lets an application request a resource, such as an API call or data feed, and have a linked wallet execute a payment automatically. Chainalysis found both higher transaction counts and an increase in transfer sizes across the dataset.

Industry figures have forecast greater use of automated agent payments on blockchains. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire have predicted increased adoption, and former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao described cryptocurrency as the “native currency” of AI agents.

Automated payments are already used in crypto. Decentralized computing platforms allow applications to pay for GPU time on demand, and decentralized data marketplaces enable automated purchases of datasets or blockchain information. A Forrester report highlighted Stripe’s Machine Payments Protocol as a related development, and Bernstein analysts said rising AI agent activity could increase demand for stablecoins, citing x402 as an example.

Chainalysis also noted that median transfer size and the share of higher-value transfers increased over time while wallet retention remained steady. The report covers onchain activity on Base from late 2024 through early 2026 and records changes in transaction counts and transfer values.