AI agent commerce is expanding rapidly as developers give automated systems their own cryptocurrency budgets, with payments through the x402 protocol on the Base blockchain rising to more than 138 million by the third quarter of 2026.
The figures, from blockchain analytics platform Chainalysis, show a sharp increase from about 1,500 payments in mid-2025. The protocol allows bots to pay automatically for online services using cryptocurrency.
Under the model, a developer funds an AI agent’s digital wallet with stablecoins, usually Circle’s dollar-pegged USDC. The agent can then pay for computing power, live web data, coding tools and other services as it carries out tasks, without seeking approval for every transaction.
It may also pay to obtain current information, access a more capable AI model or use an automated tool to check software for security flaws.
Small payments drive blockchain use
More than 87% of the payments recorded were worth less than 10 cents, Chainalysis said. At that level, processing fees for a card transaction can cost more than the service being purchased, making blockchain payments a practical alternative for automated systems.
Eric Jardine, head of research at Chainalysis, said: “You have this perfect combination of speed plus low cost to settle, and that’s the sort of thing that you would need if you were doing true AI-to-AI commerce.”
Agentic commerce has spread into areas including online shopping, travel bookings and payment settlement. It gives AI systems a role not only in carrying out tasks but also in deciding what to purchase and how to pay for it.
Coinbase introduced x402 in May 2025 and later worked with cloud security firm Cloudflare to support its development. The protocol’s foundation was launched under the Linux Foundation in July, with 40 members including Visa, Mastercard, Stripe and Google.
Chainalysis focused its research on x402 because it was designed specifically for transactions between AI agents.
The data also suggests that developers are using the wallets for continuing work rather than one-off tests. The median period between a wallet receiving its first deposit and making its first payment fell from 73 days in late 2025 to 18 minutes in the third quarter of 2026.
About two-thirds of new wallets now spend within an hour of receiving funds. Around 90% of qualifying active wallets received another deposit within 30 days, compared with approximately 71% a year earlier.
Jardine said the expansion was likely to continue as more online platforms accepted payments from AI agents.
“I would hazard that the trend is likely to be exponential,” he said. “As activity increases, there’s network effects, and those network effects tend to act like magnets for more activity.”
