Most payment volume on Coinbase's x402 protocol is not coming from AI agents, according to blockchain intelligence company TRM Labs. The firm's report, published Wednesday, examined $52.7 million across 198.9 million settlements processed by known x402 facilitators on Base, Solana, and Polygon since May 2025.
After excluding self-payments and other anomalous flows, researchers estimated that between 0.6% and 7.5% of the remaining commerce by value appeared to come from AI agents. The wide range reflects the difficulty in conclusively distinguishing autonomous agents from scripts and other automated systems that can produce identical blockchain records.
TRM Labs noted that standard scripts, scheduled jobs, load tests, and self-dealing transactions all create blockchain signatures similar to those of AI agents. The firm screened for facilitator-broadcast payments with varying amounts averaging under $1, and applied stricter criteria requiring that pattern across multiple months, plus public agent registration or payments to multiple sellers.
Even with these measures, TRM cautioned that the methodology could miss genuine agents that repeatedly purchase the same service, since such behavior resembles script activity in on-chain data.
The x402 Protocol and Agent Payments
Launched by Coinbase in 2025, x402 integrates payments into web requests. The buyer receives a price and signs a payment authorization; a facilitator verifies it, submits the blockchain transaction, and pays the network fee.
USDC stablecoins dominated settled value across the period, accounting for 99.6% of all transactions, or $52.47 million. In late 2025, activity included apparent meme-token minting and payments to an AI-analysis service. Volume concentrated in a single payment contract in early 2026, before AI-service payments returned through an agent-payment router around midyear.
Industry Investment in Agent Payments
Despite the current limited adoption, companies have continued investing in agent payment infrastructure. Binance's August Agent OS launch included an x402 payment layer, while Coinbase's Base targeted agent and payments startups through its $1 million accelerator. Amazon announced AgentCore Payments with Coinbase and Stripe in May, enabling agents to pay for online services with stablecoins.
Compliance and Registration Gaps
TRM Labs identified significant gaps in assigning responsibility for agent payments. On-chain agent registries allow individuals to declare ownership of an agent address, but this declaration is voluntary and currently not utilized by the majority of participants.
The firm called for more accurate registration, counterparty reputation information that agents can independently verify, and monitoring systems designed for high volumes of small payments rather than large transaction values. TRM Labs concluded that agentic commerce will require agentic compliance frameworks.
