Big Tech firms back new x402 Foundation to advance agentic AI adoption

Google, Microsoft and Amazon Web Services are among the Big Tech firms named as founding members of the newly launched x402 Foundation, established to govern and standardize the x402 protocol for agentic AI payments on crypto and fiat rails. 

The x402 Foundation was launched on Thursday by the open-source software development non-profit Linux Foundation with the help of Coinbase, the creators of the x402 protocol.

Other founding members of the x402 Foundation include American Express, Mastercard, Visa, Cloudflare, Shopify, Stripe, Circle, Base, Polygon Labs, Solana Foundation, Thirdweb and KakaoPay.

"The internet was built on open protocols," Jim Zemlin, CEO of the Linux Foundation, said on Thursday, as he explained why the x402 protocol should adopt an open-source structure.

Launching the x402 protocol under the Linux Foundation gives it a “neutral, nonprofit home,” said Coinbase. It could help attract more support from tech firms and developers than if it were launched under a company banner. 

The Linux Foundation is considered one of the largest and most influential open-source software nonprofits in the world. 

The move comes amid a broad industry belief that AI agents could become the dominant users of blockchain payments in the coming years. 

“There will be more AI agents transacting online than humans very soon,” Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said, echoing comments from Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire in January that “literally billions of AI agents” will be transacting onchain in three to five years.

Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao also said in January that crypto is the “native currency for AI agents,” which will handle everything from buying tickets to paying bills without credit cards.

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x402 is an open payment standard that enables AI agents and web services to autonomously pay for API access, data and digital services.

x402 transaction activity exploded before crashing down

Transaction activity for the x402 protocol peaked in November last year but quieted down in 2026, Dune Analytics data shows.

A peak of 13.7 million transactions was observed between the week of Nov. 4-10, followed by another 13.66 million transactions the following week.

However, transaction activity has fallen sharply since then, with weekly transactions falling between 29,000 and 1.1 million.

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