The Next Wave of Crypto Users Won’t Be People, They’ll Be AI Agents

TLDR

• AI agents are making autonomous payments online, mostly using USDC stablecoins, for data, computing power, and API access
• Coinbase’s x402 protocol has processed over 165 million payments worth $50 million, with roughly 99% in USDC
• Cloudflare, Mastercard, MoonPay, and Circle are all building payment tools for AI agents
• Card networks are not stepping aside, with Mastercard testing a voucher-based system called Agent Pay for Machines
• The market is still early, with most volume in small micropayments averaging around 30 cents per transaction

AI agents, software programs that carry out tasks on behalf of users, are now making payments on their own. They are buying data, computing power, and access to online tools without any human hitting a button each time.

Crypto’s next billion users might not be human.

They could be AI agents and they’re already paying with stablecoins.

Coinbase’s x402 has processed:

• 165M+ payments
• $50M in volume
• Around 99% paid in $USDC

AI agents are buying data, computing power and API access for… pic.twitter.com/zpVXrbYG3J

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