Coinbase launches AiFi financial system: x402 has processed over 205 million transactions

Coinbase stated on the X platform that the financial layer surrounding AI agents is referred to as agent finance, or AiFi, which encompasses agent trading and agent commerce. AI agents can research information, make decisions, and execute operations on behalf of individuals and businesses, and they need to perform basic financial activities such as payments, receipts, value storage, and fund transfers. Coinbase claims that it is building tools for AI agents to continuously execute financial operations within predefined goals, permissions, limitations, and security boundaries.

Coinbase indicated that Coinbase Advisor, Coinbase for Agents, x402, and Coinbase Business have formed the AiFi infrastructure. Coinbase Advisor is an SEC-registered investment advisor integrated into the app for Coinbase One users, providing portfolio analysis and guidance through a chat interface; Coinbase for Agents connects tools like Claude, ChatGPT, and Cursor to Coinbase accounts via MCP, allowing users to set operational conditions and security boundaries for agents, as well as create independent sandbox accounts for agent use.

Coinbase stated that x402 is an open payment standard initiated by Coinbase and currently managed by an independent foundation, which supports AI agents in paying fees to other agents, applications, and services. As of now, x402 has processed over 205 million transactions, with a transaction volume of $53 million, covering 200,000 sellers, with Coinbase facilitating 67% of the activities. Single payments can be used for API calls, datasets, research materials, or computing resources.

Coinbase indicated that Coinbase Business supports enterprises in natively receiving AI agent payments in USDC, and Coinbiz can help merchants sell services and content to software without relying on credit card credentials, manual invoicing, or payment processes designed with human customers in mind. Eligible businesses can earn a floating reward of 3.35% from idle USDC balances. USDC currently accounts for 99% of on-chain agent commerce transactions, while x402 represents 97% of agent finance protocol usage, with related activities operating on Base.