Open Source · AI Agent · China · Coinbase · U.S. · CoinDesk
China, meanwhile, indicated a different pattern of activity
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He cautioned against interpreting that gap as evidence that open-source AI was undermining Asia's payments market.
Key facts
- In July, x402 processed roughly 75 million payments worth $24 million over 30 days
- Diversified RWA stablecoins sustain 5-7% yield from real credit as crypto funding compresses to ~4%
- Among wallets first funded in the second quarter of 2026, 89.3% received additional funding within 30 days, compared with 70.6% for wallets first funded in the Q3 2025
- The time between a wallet receiving funds and making its first x40 payment also fell sharply, from an average of 73 days in late 2025 to 18 minutes in Q3 2026
Summary
AI agents made more than 138 million transactions through Coinbase’s x402 protocol, using cryptocurrency to buy data, computing power and access to AI models. U.S.-linked wallets accounted for 88.1% of identified payments for AI model inference, while Chinese-linked wallets dominated payments for security and code-analysis services. More than 87% of analyzed x402 payments were worth 10 cents or less, underscoring stablecoins’ potential for micropayments while leaving questions about genuine commercial demand. "One possible explanation is that Chinese developers are more inclined to use open-weight models such as DeepSeek and Qwen, reducing their need to purchase metered inference services," Eric Jardine, Chainalysis' head of research, told CoinDesk. The findings, released Wednesday, come as Visa, Mastercard, Stripe and other payments giants have backed the x402 protocol, while Coinbase has begun allowing business customers to accept payments from AI agents.