TLDR Tech / Crypto
What Are Agents Paying For? x402 and the Agentic Economy on Base
Base has crossed 100 million x402 transactions, with roughly 90% settling on Base and tens of millions of dollars moved through the open HTTP payments protocol, confirming machine-native micropayments at production scale. The majority of current volume reflects agents purchasing upstream data services, including web search via Exa and Tavily, URL-to-context conversion via Firecrawl, browser automation via Browserbase, and contact enrichment via Apollo, with full task chains often costing only cents. The next layer emerging is agent-to-agent commerce: specialized agents package entire workflows and sell the output to other agents via x402, removing the need for each agent to independently rediscover production sequences. This creates a pathway for USDC-settled agent microbusinesses on Base, where x402 operates as an agent coordination layer rather than a traditional checkout endpoint.
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