Big Tech names have joined the Linux Foundation’s newly formed x402 Foundation to govern and standardize the x402 protocol for agentic AI payments that bridge crypto rails with fiat. The Linux Foundation announced the formation of the x402 Foundation on Thursday with Coinbase as a contributor, positioning the open standard as a neutral, nonprofit home for the evolving payments layer that AI agents could use to autonomously pay for API access, data, and digital services.

Among the founding members are Google, Microsoft, and Amazon Web Services, alongside traditional payments and tech players such as American Express, Mastercard, Visa, Cloudflare, Shopify, Stripe, Circle, Base, Polygon Labs, the Solana Foundation, Thirdweb, and KakaoPay. The coalition signals broad industry appetite for a unified approach to AI-enabled payments that can operate across both crypto and traditional financial rails.

Linux Foundation CEO Jim Zemlin framed the move around open protocols, saying that “the internet was built on open protocols” and arguing for an open-source governance approach to x402. Coinbase emphasized that situating the protocol under the Linux Foundation lends a neutral, nonprofit ecosystem that could attract more widespread support from tech firms and developers than a corporate-branded launch would.

Beyond the structural shift, the effort taps into a longer-running market thesis: AI agents could become some of the dominant users of blockchain payments. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong echoed a view shared by Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire that AI-driven on-chain activity could reach scale fast, with Allaire predicting billions of AI agents transacting on-chain within a few years. Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao has also suggested crypto could serve as the “native currency for AI agents,” handling tasks from ticket purchases to bill payments without credit cards.

x402 is described as an open payment standard designed to enable AI agents and web services to autonomously pay for API access, data, and digital services. The protocol’s goal is to create a seamless, programmable payment layer that can operate across both blockchain networks and fiat rails, enabling new automated service models at scale.

Key takeaways

• Founding coalition includes Google, Microsoft, AWS, AmEx, Mastercard, Visa, Cloudflare, Shopify, Stripe, Circle, Base, Polygon Labs, Solana Foundation, Thirdweb, KakaoPay, and Coinbase, with Linux Foundation hosting the initiative.
• The Linux Foundation’s stewardship aims to lend legitimacy and openness to x402, potentially broadening developer and enterprise participation beyond corporate sponsorships.
• Industry leaders frame AI agents as major future users of on-chain payments, with optimistic projections about billions of autonomous transactions in coming years.
• On-chain activity data shows a dramatic surge in x402 transactions last November, followed by a sharp drop through 2026, suggesting early enthusiasm outpaced durable, broad-based adoption.

Founding members and the mission behind x402

The launch of the x402 Foundation marks a concerted effort to govern an open standard that could standardize how AI agents access paid services, from APIs to data feeds. By bringing together technology giants and payments specialists, the project aims to reduce fragmentation and foster interoperable payment flows across multiple rails. The Linux Foundation’s role as a trusted steward is central to this strategy, offering governance, governance processes, and an established ecosystem for collaboration among developers, researchers, and enterprises.

Jim Zemlin, the Linux Foundation’s chief, underscored the rationale for openness: the internet’s early growth relied on shared protocols that anyone could build upon. His framing points to a broader industry belief that AI agents will require a universal, permissionable, and auditable payment layer to function across devices, platforms, and geographies. Coinbase’s stance reinforces the value of a neutral venue that can welcome a broader constituency of participants, from tech platforms to merchant networks and fintech providers.

The Linux Foundation as a neutral hub for open protocols

The decision to anchor x402 within the Linux Foundation reflects a longstanding industry preference for governance through an impartial organization rather than a single corporate entity. Such positioning could be critical as regulators, enterprises, and developers weigh the regulatory and operational implications of autonomous payments that operate at the intersection of crypto rails and fiat systems. Coinbase noted that a nonprofit home could improve collaboration, reduce friction for newcomers, and help scale adoption beyond a handful of early pilots.

AI agents and the future of on-chain commerce

At the heart of the x402 push is a belief that AI agents will soon be one of the principal drivers of on-chain payment activity. Armstrong’s comment—“There will be more AI agents transacting online than humans very soon”—aligns with a broader industry forecast, including Allaire’s earlier observation that billions of AI agents could transact on-chain in three to five years. Zhao’s remark about crypto as the “native currency for AI agents” suggests a future where autonomous software agents handle routine financial tasks—ranging from ticketing to bill payment—without human intervention or traditional card rails.

In practice, x402 would enable autonomous agents and web services to procure API access, data streams, and digital services via programmable payments. If widely adopted, this could accelerate the automation of many online workflows and introduce new monetization models for AI-enabled tools. Yet the path to broad adoption will depend on ecosystem incentives, proven security and reliability, and the ability to demonstrate cost efficiency at scale.

As AI agents move from concept to deployment, the question for investors and builders is where true value will accrue. Will open, interoperable payment standards like x402 unlock durable business models for AI-driven services, or will fragmentation persist as competing standards and gatekeepers emerge? The answer will hinge on concrete pilots, measurable ROI, and regulators’ evolving stance on programmable payments and data access across borders.

Signals from on-chain activity: a tale of initial hype and later cooling

For a sense of traction, data from Dune Analytics tracks weekly activity on the x402 protocol. After peaking in November with a weekly total around 13.7 million transactions, followed by 13.66 million in the next week, activity has since cooled significantly. Current weekly totals have fluctuated between roughly 29,000 and 1.1 million transactions, illustrating a stark drop from the early frenzy. The chart labeled “Weekly transactions via the x402 protocol since May 2025” shows the post-peak erosion in use, raising questions about what it will take to sustain momentum in the near term.

The numbers reflect a broader challenge facing new open standards: translating theoretical potential into durable, real-world usage. While the coalition’s membership signals strong strategic interest, the actual adoption curve for x402 will likely hinge on successful pilots, clear return on investment, and the establishment of practical payment flows for AI-enabled services at scale.

What to watch next

Observers should monitor how the x402 Foundation evolves its governance, onboarding of additional partners, and real-world pilots that demonstrate repeatable, scalable use cases. Key uncertainties include whether large enterprises will embed x402 into mission-critical AI workflows, how regulators will treat autonomous payments across crypto and fiat rails, and whether the ecosystem can sustain higher-frequency, low-latency transactions that AI agents require. As AI agents become more prevalent in API access and digital service consumption, the coming quarters will reveal whether x402 can translate early interest into durable, long-term adoption.

Bitcoin is trading choppily around $66,600, as the extended holiday weekend sidelines potential buyers and gives bears greater control over price action.

With CME futures and ETF flows set to pause over Good Friday, the market is heading into a liquidity gap just as its most reliable source of support is already weakening.

Bitcoin’s $65,000 support is starting to look fragile as the market’s most active buyers turn out to be its most macro-dependent. In a recent report, CryptoQuant data show 30-day apparent demand at about -63,000 BTC, even as ETF and corporate purchases climb to multi-month highs, while Singapore-based market maker Enflux told CoinDesk in a note that the price floor is “partly underwritten by rate-cut expectations.”

ETF purchases rose to roughly 50,000 BTC over the past 30 days, the highest since October 2025, while Strategy accumulated about 44,000 BTC over the same period. Yet overall demand remained negative, with selling from other participants overwhelming those inflows.

The pressure is most visible among large holders, CryptoQuant wrote in a recent report. Wallets holding 1,000 to 10,000 BTC have flipped to net distribution, with their one-year balance change dropping to about negative 188,000 BTC from a positive 200,000 BTC at the 2024 cycle peak. Mid-sized holders have also slowed accumulation sharply, while the Coinbase Premium has remained negative, signaling weak U.S. spot demand.

The result is a market where rising institutional activity does not translate into stronger price support. As more capital shifts toward ETF wrappers and regulated futures markets, bitcoin is increasingly priced through macro-sensitive positioning such as hedging and allocation shifts rather than broad-based spot accumulation.

That positioning is now being tested by inflation data, Enflux wrote. The ISM prices-paid index jumped to 78.3 in March, its highest since June 2022, undermining expectations for near-term rate cuts. Enflux said the repricing has already begun to show up in flows, with $296 million in net ETF outflows during the week of March 24 and muted inflows in early April.

The long weekend removes a key stabilizer. With CME closed and ETF creation and redemption paused, the institutional bid that has increasingly anchored bitcoin’s price will be largely absent, leaving trading to spot markets where selling pressure has been most persistent.

CryptoQuant said any relief rally could face resistance between roughly $71,500 and $81,200, levels that have capped prior rebounds in the current bear-market structure.

The broader test comes with U.S. inflation data on April 9. If March core PCE exceeds February’s 3.1%, rate-cut expectations could fade further, strengthening bearish case in bitcoin.

Opinion by: Sebastián Serrano, founder and CEO of Ripio.

For much of the past decade, the crypto industry has tried to tokenize niche assets in an attempt to reinvent finance. While creative, this approach has largely missed the core economic truth about where tokenization actually creates value.

In these early stages of blockchain adoption, tokenization works best not at the fringes of the economy, but at its center. The industry’s first instinct — to tokenize illiquid assets — was a miscalculation. The most successful tokenization effort involved the most liquid asset in the world (the US dollar) in the form of USD-backed stablecoins.

Today, companies are piloting tokenized versions of other highly liquid assets like Treasury bills, smaller currencies and increasingly, stocks. This is not accidental. Tokenization is most powerful when applied to assets that already have massive demand and standardized legal and financial frameworks. Liquidity is the precondition that allows tokenization to move from novelty to infrastructure.

Tokenize what people want

Tokenization should start with assets that are already in high demand. Money, sovereign debt and major financial instruments are the base layer of the global economy. They are used daily by governments, corporations and individuals. When you tokenize these assets, you are not trying to create demand from scratch. You are upgrading the rails on which trillions of dollars already move.

If we look into our recent history, we find that electricity obviously wasn’t first used to power fancy art installations, but factories. Blockchains are no different. They reach their potential when they tokenize money and core financial primitives, not edge-case assets. 

Stablecoins succeeded. They mapped directly onto an existing, massive use case. Stablecoins move dollars globally, quickly and cheaply. Tokenized treasuries are gaining traction for the same reason. They represent a real, high-demand asset that institutions already hold at scale.

Tokenization adds the most value where frictions are large and expensive. Bonds move trillions of dollars, but they do so inefficiently. Tokenization compresses settlement from days to minutes. Tokenization allows assets and cash to move together, in real time, without relying on intermediaries. That changes the cost structure and risk profile of financial operations.

Network effects only emerge around assets in very high demand, like money and sovereign debt. When you tokenize them, you create immediate interoperability. Everyone can build around the same unit of account. This is why stablecoins became the backbone of on-chain finance.

Related: Australia’s central bank backs tokenization as pilot finds $16.7B upside

NFTs and highly bespoke RWAs are the opposite. They are fragmented by design. Each asset is unique, legally ambiguous and difficult to standardize. That makes them incapable of becoming a shared economic layer. They may have cultural or speculative value, but they cannot anchor broad financial network effects.

Market effects of tokenizing liquid assets

Adding programmability to illiquid assets, you can fractionalize ownership or automate certain workflows. You do not, however, unlock new forms of economic coordination. The asset still does not trade frequently. It still lacks deep markets. 

With liquid assets, however, tokenization unlocks entirely new financial behaviors. Continuous settlement, streaming payments, automated collateral management. These are just some of the novelties that tokenization can bring.

There are other considerations. Can you use a given tokenized asset as collateral? This is an important question, and the answer is that it mostly depends on liquidity. After all, liquid assets can be safely integrated as collateral into automated systems. Their valuations are transparent and updated in real time. 

Illiquid assets, however, have sporadic trades, subjective valuations and wide bid-ask spreads. Their nature makes them very difficult to use as collateral. Tokenization doesn’t solve that problem. This reduces demand for the asset.

Capital efficiency also improves significantly for liquid assets. Tokenized liquid instruments can potentially be rehypothecated, fractionally deployed and programmatically allocated in real time. Capital moves faster across the system. But tokenization doesn’t produce continuous markets for illiquid assets. 

Reducing risk through clarity

Dollars, government bonds and large corporate debt have well-established legal status, issuer accountability and regulatory frameworks. Tokenization can fit within existing financial law, making institutional adoption far more straightforward.

It’s harder for NFTs. Questions about ownership, custody, enforceability and investor protection can outweigh technical benefits. In practice, these uncertainties raise risk rather than reduce it. It’s natural for large, institutional tokenization endeavours to focus on liquid assets first. 

The future of tokenization will be defined by assets that are economically central. Obviously, the crypto sector’s early experiments with NFTs were necessary and understandable. It was difficult for NFTs to succeed in the long term. They were focused on the wrong type of asset.

Stablecoins proved this by upgrading the most liquid asset in the world. Tokenized government bonds and equities are the logical next step. This is how blockchains move from experimental technology to foundational financial infrastructure.

Opinion by: Sebastián Serrano, founder and CEO of Ripio.