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Event File FINTECH Stablecoins

x402 Protocol Moves to Linux Foundation to Set Stablecoin Micropayment Standard for AI Agents

2 reports · First detected 2026-04-04 · Last active 2026-04-04

Coinbase launched x402 on May 6, 2025, reviving the HTTP 402 “Payment Required” status code to let AI agents settle each use of APIs, data or computing services with stablecoins such as USDC, without first creating an account or subscription. While a conventional payment can cost as much as $0.30 per transaction, x402 supports micropayments as low as $0.001, making it important infrastructure for machine-to-machine commerce.

The Linux Foundation announced plans to establish the x402 Foundation and accept Coinbase’s donation of the protocol on April 2, 2026. The transfer was completed on July 14, when the foundation formally began operations under an open, vendor-neutral governance model. It has 40 members, including Coinbase, Cloudflare, Stripe, AWS, Google, Visa, Mastercard, Circle and Shopify, while support has expanded beyond stablecoins to traditional cards.

All Coverage

2 original reports
ITHOME.COM.TW 2026-05-06
Linux基金會成立x402 Foundation，攜手產業推動AI代理支付標準
PYMNTS.COM 2026-04-04
Digital Money Has a New Payment Standard and It’s Not Built For Humans

The Backstory

The history behind this event
Visa, Mastercard and Ripple Back x402 Agent-Payments Protocol2026-07-15 · 1 reports · similarity 0.87

The Linux Foundation launched the x402 Foundation in July 2026 with backing from Visa, Mastercard, Ripple and other major companies, aiming to establish a web-native payment standard for software agents. The protocol allows agents to make micropayments directly with stablecoins such as USDC, without cumbersome traditional account applications or pre-established relationships. It is designed to remove payment barriers from autonomous machine-to-machine commerce.

The protocol has recently made significant progress, processing about 75 million agent-payment transactions to date. The latest data show that transfers between software agents average just 32 cents under the protocol. The figure demonstrates the viability of low-cost, direct micropayments and has encouraged payment giants including Visa and Mastercard to deepen their involvement in decentralized micropayments.

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