Major Technology Companies Unite Behind x402 Foundation for Agentic AI Development
According to Coinbase, the x402 protocol will maintain decentralized ownership, with the Linux Foundation providing a "neutral, non-profit home" for the agentic AI protocol.
Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, and Google have been announced as founding participants in the recently established x402 Foundation, a new organization created to oversee and standardize the x402 protocol designed for agentic AI payments across both cryptocurrency and traditional fiat payment systems.
On Thursday, the Linux Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to open-source software development, introduced the x402 Foundation in collaboration with Coinbase, the original developers behind the x402 protocol.
Additional founding participants in the x402 Foundation comprise Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Stripe, Shopify, Cloudflare, Thirdweb, Solana Foundation, Polygon Labs, Base, Circle, and KakaoPay.
"The internet was built on open protocols,"
Jim Zemlin, CEO of the Linux Foundation
The Linux Foundation CEO Zemlin provided reasoning for why an open-source framework should be adopted for the x402 protocol.
By establishing the x402 protocol within the Linux Foundation's structure, it gains a "neutral, nonprofit home," according to Coinbase. This approach could potentially generate greater backing from technology companies and software developers compared to launching it under corporate ownership.
As one of the world's largest and most impactful open-source software nonprofit organizations, the Linux Foundation brings significant credibility and resources to the initiative.
This development arrives during a period of widespread industry conviction that autonomous AI agents are poised to emerge as the primary users of blockchain-based payment systems in the near future.
"There will be more AI agents transacting online than humans very soon,"
Brian Armstrong, Coinbase CEO
The statements from Armstrong align with observations made by Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire in January, who predicted that "literally billions of AI agents" would be conducting transactions on blockchain networks within a three to five year timeframe.
In January, former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao similarly stated that cryptocurrency represents the "native currency for AI agents," which are expected to autonomously manage tasks ranging from purchasing tickets to settling bills without requiring credit cards.
As an open payment standard, x402 facilitates autonomous payment capabilities for AI agents and web services, enabling them to independently compensate for API access, data acquisition, and various digital services.
x402 transaction activity exploded before crashing down
According to data from Dune Analytics, transaction volumes for the x402 protocol reached their highest point in November of last year before experiencing a significant decline in 2026.
The highest recorded activity occurred during the week spanning Nov. 4-10, with 13.7 million transactions processed, immediately followed by an additional 13.66 million transactions in the subsequent week.
Nevertheless, transaction volumes have experienced a dramatic decrease since that period, with weekly transaction counts dropping to a range between 29,000 and 1.1 million.
