Coinbase Betting Big: Will This Public AI And Stablecoin Beast Onboard Billions?

2025 is proving to be a critical year for crypto adoption. Before, we had meme coins, but every token that goes live on Pump.fun risks plunging to zero as soon as it launches. The meme coin mania soon shifted to stablecoins, and out of this, early supporters, including Coinbase who are behind USDC, are deep in green.

The big boys, including BlackRock and politicians, including Donald Trump, are watching and stealthily investing billions. Plasma immediately took off, but the network is not suited for AI payment agents; however, Coinbase has a plan.

The new global financial system is here. pic.twitter.com/pkpXia30FS

— Plasma (@Plasma) September 25, 2025

Aware that a large portion of the global population is not crypto-savvy, Coinbase, through the Coinbase Developer Platform (CDP), is reviving an old tech and building x402 on top of it. The core objective of x402 is to solve “friction” in today’s digital economy, where payments in TradFi are slow and clunky, ill-suited for automation.

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What The Heck is x402?

Simply put, x402 is an open-source payment protocol that revives the long-dormant HTTP 402 “Payment Required” status code in Web2. This code allows for instant and automatic payments, ideal for AI agents.

All it takes is a few lines of code, and x402 can be embedded in standard HTTP requests without the need for custom APIs, blockchain wallets, or any other complex blockchain tool.

Coinbase said x402 is developed for the “agentic” future of the internet, where AI agents and machines will take over, enabling the automatic transfer of value in real time while being blockchain agnostic.

This feature means that x402 can be integrate with any chain, preferably low-fee platforms like BSC, Solana, or Ethereum layer-2s.

Erik Reppel, the Head of Engineering at CDP, said the open source protocol could “define the next era of the internet; one where value moves as freely and instantly as information.” Reppel added that CDP is “laying the groundwork for an economy run not just by people, but by software—autonomous, intelligent, and always on.”

If payment is everything, stablecoins fit x402 like a glove, powering cheap payments anywhere in the world without requiring users to hold volatile native tokens.

What’s more? Because x402 will be preferable in low-fee, scalable chains, the protocol will enable micro-transactions without the need for subcriptions.

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What’s The Implication? Boon For Ethereum and Stablecoins?

One analyst on X said if x402 takes over, it will fundamentally change the “business model of the internet” that web3 is based on.

He predicts a future where the open source protocol will cause a rapid shift, allowing agents to take over and enable microtransactions which will be the “currency of the AI internet.”

(Source: RyanSAdams, X)

The good news is that since Coinbase is behind this protocol, Ethereum, which is the host of DeFi primitives, will directly benefit once deployed for USDC microtransactions on Base layer-2.

Already, in the past month, x402 has processed over 38,000 transactions, up 90%. What’s more? Trading volume is up nearly 5,000% in the same period to over $50,000.

(Source: x402 Scan)

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