Coinbase is rolling out new infrastructure aimed at “agentic” finance, expanding its business tools so companies can accept stablecoin payments from autonomous AI agents. The move centers on USDC transfers using the x402 payment standard, an HTTP-based approach introduced by Coinbase earlier this year to make stablecoin payments workable for agents, applications, and APIs.

In an announcement posted to X on Thursday, Coinbase said its Business customers will be able to receive USDC payments from AI agents through x402, alongside new AI trading capabilities that allow users to monitor orders, pull live market data, and trigger actions based on predefined conditions.

Key takeaways

• Coinbase Business will support receiving USDC payments from AI agents via the x402 standard.
• x402 was launched in May 2025 to enable stablecoin payment workflows over HTTP for agent and developer use cases.
• The update also includes AI trading tools for order monitoring, live market data access, and condition-based execution.
• Coinbase frames the changes as part of broader infrastructure needed for autonomous agents to manage payments and finance.
• The rollout arrives as exchanges and payment firms increasingly market stablecoins and blockchain payments for AI agent ecosystems.

USDC payments for AI agents through x402

The practical heart of Coinbase’s update is x402, a payment standard designed to connect stablecoin payment flows with common internet protocols. According to Coinbase’s announcement, the company will enable Coinbase Business users to accept USDC payments initiated by AI agents through x402.

Coinbase first introduced x402 in May 2025, positioning it as a way to support stablecoin payments over HTTP for AI agents, software applications, and APIs. By placing USDC payment acceptance behind a developer-friendly standard, Coinbase is effectively lowering the friction for businesses that want to integrate with agent-driven commerce without relying on traditional, human-centric payment workflows.

Beyond payments: AI trading tools and a developer kit

Coinbase’s Thursday post did not limit the announcement to payments alone. The company also previewed AI trading tools intended to give users more automated control over trading operations. Coinbase said users will be able to monitor orders, access live market data, and execute actions when predetermined conditions are met.

For developers, Coinbase additionally described a software development kit (SDK) for building agent-powered applications. That matters because payments and trading are only useful to autonomous systems if they can be integrated reliably into software. An SDK paired with an HTTP-based payment standard suggests Coinbase is aiming to make agent integrations more repeatable for teams building real products—not just demonstrations.

Why Coinbase says the “agentic economy” needs new infrastructure

Coinbase framed the initiative as support for the “agentic economy,” where AI agents can perform tasks such as making payments and managing finances on behalf of users. The company’s argument is that the existing financial internet was designed around a human making choices through interfaces—clicking buttons, confirming actions, and manually initiating steps.

Coinbase also pointed to an adoption signal: it said agent-generated traffic on its Base documentation pages surpassed human traffic for the first time last month. While that doesn’t automatically prove consumer adoption, it does underline a shift in how developers and systems are interacting with technical resources—an important backdrop for tools that are meant to be used programmatically by agents rather than by people.

At the same time, Coinbase acknowledged the gap it’s trying to close: financial infrastructure built on the assumption of human button-clicks leaves businesses, developers, and users without tooling designed for AI agents to act autonomously in payment and finance workflows.

Stablecoins and blockchain payments move closer to agent workflows

The Coinbase announcement lands as the broader industry increasingly treats stablecoins and blockchain-based payments as infrastructure for AI agents. The announcement explicitly points to this trend, noting that stablecoin payments are being marketed for emerging autonomous agent ecosystems.

Earlier coverage from Cointelegraph has highlighted the growing interest from exchanges and payment companies in agent-focused commerce. In particular, Cointelegraph previously reported on an OKX AI marketplace narrative aimed at an “autonomous agent economy,” as well as Crossmint’s initiatives tying agent-driven experiences to card payment rails.

What’s notable in Coinbase’s approach is the emphasis on a standardized, API-friendly payment method. Instead of treating payments as a black-box checkout flow, Coinbase is attempting to make payment acceptance compatible with agent decision-making—especially when agents need to initiate transfers and coordinate actions without a human in the loop.

What to watch next

For businesses considering agent integrations, the next questions are likely to be practical: how widely x402 support is rolled out, what implementation details developers will need to adopt the standard for USDC acceptance, and how Coinbase’s condition-based AI trading tools perform for real workflows. As agent traffic grows, the value of these updates will hinge on reliability and ease of integration for payments and execution beyond documentation and pilots.

“We are delivering that experience for the new online agentic economy,” Coelho-Prabhu said in an interview. “Agents, on one side of the transaction, will go and read the Coinbase developer docs, create a wallet for themselves, and are ready to shop. Then we empower businesses so that everything in their inventory is now available on the internet through this agent-friendly checkout flow.”

For users of the exchange, they can get an easier command of crypto markets with a live order list that streams an agent’s open and active orders in real time, showing status, price, and size so the user can supervise every move, Coinbase said in a press release.

This will put agentic trading at the user’s fingertips, with the agent getting real-time market data and the ability to act on conditions autonomously. “Tell it what you want in plain English – ‘buy ETH if it dips 5%,’ ‘sell when my order fills’ – and it watches the market and executes for you. The same WebSocket data that powers institutional desks is now accessible through natural language,” Coinbase said.

In addition, for developers there’s a new x402 SDK from Coinbase Developer Platform, builders can now add x402 payment acceptance to any API, MCP server, or web service in 3 lines of code.

Coinbase is expanding its push into AI-powered finance, enabling businesses to accept USDC payments from autonomous AI agents as part of a broader expansion of its payment, trading and developer tools.

According to a Thursday X post, Coinbase Business users will be able to accept USDC (USDC) payments from AI agents through the x402 payment standard, which Coinbase first introduced in May 2025 to enable stablecoin payments over HTTP for AI agents, applications and APIs.

The post also announced AI trading tools that let users monitor orders, access live market data, and execute actions based on predefined conditions, as well as a software development kit for developers building agent-powered applications.

Coinbase said the products are designed to support the “agentic economy,” where AI agents can make payments, manage finances and complete other tasks on behalf of users.

The company said adoption of AI agents is accelerating, noting that agent-generated traffic surpassed human traffic on its Base documentation pages for the first time last month. However, it added that the internet’s financial infrastructure was built with “one assumption: a human clicking the button,” which has left businesses, developers and users without tools designed for AI agents.

The rollout comes as companies increasingly position stablecoins and blockchain-based payments as infrastructure for AI agents, an emerging use case that several exchanges and payment companies are targeting.

Magazine: Here’s why the CLARITY Act’s ethics deal may be so hard to reach

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Bitcoin (BTC) fell below $65,000 on Thursday as US stocks slid amid another round of escalation in Iran.

Key points:

• Several days of US-Iran escalation are beginning to take their toll on crypto and stock market performance.
• Bitcoin sees three-day lows under $65,000 as traders diverge on the near-term outlook.
• A 21-day moving average trend line becomes important nearby support.

Bitcoin wobbles as Iran destabilizes stocks, oil and US bond yields

Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD hitting three-day lows of $64,799 on Bitstamp.

BTC/USD one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Risk assets felt the strain on the day as US President Donald Trump warned that he would blame Iran for recent Houthi strikes on Saudi Arabian commercial vessels.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said that he was “very disappointed” in the Houthis, referencing attacks on US ships from 2025.

Source: Donald Trump on Truthsocial.com

By the close of New York trading, the S&P 500 had fallen 1.2% and the Nasdaq had shed 2.2%, while oil prices rallied to their highest since early June, with Brent crude topping $100 a barrel.

CFDs on Brent crude oil one-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

“Inflation expectations and interest rates are rising sharply again,” trading resource The Kobeissi Letter wrote in a response on X.

Ahead of the Federal Reserve’s next interest-rate decision, data from CME Group’s FedWatch Tool showed an increasing chance of officials hiking by 0.25% — traditionally a headwind for crypto markets. Odds neared 40% on Thursday, while a week prior, they were closer to 12%.

Fed target-rate probability comparison for July FOMC meeting. Source: CME Group

Kobeissi, meanwhile, noted 18-month highs in US 10-year bond yields in a sign of fresh economic strain.

Related: Bitcoin will get ‘lift’ from Hyperliquid, Robinhood in next crypto bull market: Bitwise exec

BTC price analysis offers hope of $73,000

Bitcoin traders showed an increasing split over what short-term BTC price action would bring.

Commentator Exitpump argued that the Bitcoin relief rally is likely to end by late July, reinforcing an established theory that has already gained traction.

“July rally is coming to end, price is at resistance, close your longs, go short once price breaks below 65K,” they told X followers late on Wednesday.

BTC/USDT perpetual contract four-hour chart. Source: Exitpump on X.com

Others were more hopeful, with trader Jelle arguing that price was “still making progress.”

“Clear this local area and that void towards $70k opens up – could be a quick move to form the new range. Patience remains my game,” he reported.

BTC/USD chart. Source: Jelle on X.com

According to crypto trader and analyst Michaël van de Poppe, the 21-week simple moving average (SMA) at $64,073 was key.

“Theoretically, the target area for Bitcoin is reached. However, as long as this stays above the 21-Day MA, I’m sure there will be a higher valuation for Bitcoin in the near-term,” an X post on the day stated, adding:

“It’s facing the final hurdle for a big breakout, which is the $68,000 resistance zone. It’s been tested once, and this is the second test that we’ll be facing.”

BTC/USDT one-day chart. Source: Michaël van de Poppe on X.com

Van de Poppe gave a $73,000 target should bulls successfully break through resistance.

Gate founder and CEO Dr. Han has backed a human-led approach to crypto trading as millions of digital assets and tens of thousands of decentralized applications make Web3 increasingly difficult for users to navigate.

In the latest episode of the Gatecast podcast, Dr. Han argued that artificial intelligence could help traders gather information, study market signals, and make decisions without removing the need for human judgment.

🎙️ #GateCast 新一期上线｜Gate 创始人 @Han_Gate 坦白局！

🤔 合规能不能换来更强的用户信任？它会不会拖慢创新速度？拿到 #MiCA 牌照，究竟是紧箍咒，还是通往更大市场的入场券？

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猜来猜去还是不明白，不如点开精彩片段康一康 👇 pic.twitter.com/coTFHML1zD

— Gate 华语 (@Gate_zh) July 23, 2026

According to the Gate CEO, the combination of AI tools and human intelligence could offer a more effective model for trading than relying entirely on automated systems. AI can process large volumes of market information quickly, he noted, but traders must still assess that information before acting.

“AI + human intelligence” will become a more effective approach in the future, Dr. Han said.

His comments place AI in an assistant role at a time when exchanges and traders are using automated tools to scan prices, track market activity and filter information. Rather than presenting the technology as a replacement for users, Dr. Han described it as a way to reduce the effort required to find and understand crypto products.

Gatecast’s discussion also covered the difficulty of entering Web3 when users must choose among millions of tokens and tens of thousands of DApps. Dr. Han identified those choices, along with the learning required to use decentralized products, as barriers that keep potential users outside the sector.

Under his assessment, AI could become a gateway between users and the Web3 ecosystem by helping them locate relevant services and understand how those products work. Intelligent interfaces could also reduce the time users spend researching separate protocols, assets and trading tools, according to Dr. Han.

AI tools will support trader decisions

Gate is already developing several products under what the exchange calls its Intelligent Web3 strategy. Dr. Han identified Gate AI, GateClaw and Gate for AI Agent as parts of a product system designed to integrate artificial intelligence into the company’s trading ecosystem.

Through these services, Gate is using AI to simplify product interactions and reduce the amount of knowledge required before users can begin exploring Web3, according to the CEO. Dr. Han added that the exchange plans to continue developing intelligent products that make decentralized services easier to access.

His position differs from predictions that increasingly capable models could eventually remove people from financial decision-making. While Dr. Han credited AI with improving research and signal analysis, he maintained that the technology cannot fully reproduce the judgment traders apply when interpreting market conditions.

Earlier this week, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao also separated AI’s economic role from that of Bitcoin. In an X post, CZ argued that artificial intelligence can raise productivity, improve business efficiency and support technological development, while Bitcoin offers a scarce asset that cannot be expanded beyond its 21 million-coin limit.

The comparison followed JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon’s forecast that the AI investment cycle could attract $725 billion this year. According to CZ, companies developing AI products can issue more shares or raise capital to finance expansion, potentially diluting existing investors, whereas no company or government can increase Bitcoin’s programmed supply.

CZ also rejected the idea that rapid progress in artificial intelligence gives investors the same protection that Bitcoin may offer when fiat currencies lose purchasing power. His comments focused on the difference between investing in productivity-driven businesses and holding an asset designed around fixed supply.

Political pressure could complicate AI adoption

Dr. Han’s case for AI-assisted Web3 access comes as Washington considers how foreign models should operate in the U.S. market. As previously reported by crypto.news, parts of the Trump administration have discussed de facto restrictions on Chinese open-source models after Moonshot AI’s 2.8-trillion-parameter Kimi K3 topped a major coding leaderboard.

Axios reported that American companies have shown interest in Chinese systems because they can provide capable performance at lower prices. Open-weight models also allow businesses to download trained parameters, operate models on private servers and modify them without depending on the original developer’s platform.

People involved in the U.S. policy debate have previously considered placing Chinese AI laboratories on the Commerce Department’s Entity List, according to the crypto.news report. Such a designation could restrict access to American technology without government licenses, although earlier proposals were paused amid concerns that the restrictions could slow AI development in the United States.

Political scrutiny increased on July 22 when Michael Kratsios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, accused Moonshot AI of using Anthropic technology to develop Kimi K3. In an X post, Kratsios claimed that information obtained by the U.S. government linked K3’s development to Anthropic’s Fable model.

Kratsios alleged that Moonshot created an internal platform capable of extracting knowledge from American models through large-scale distillation. He also claimed that the platform could change its access methods quickly, making the alleged activity harder for U.S. developers to identify.

However, the White House official did not release technical records or other evidence supporting the allegations. Moonshot AI had not publicly responded at the time of the report, while the White House had not provided material that independent researchers could use to determine whether K3 incorporated Anthropic’s proprietary technology.

Despite those policy disputes, Dr. Han expects AI to play a growing role in how users discover and operate crypto products. Gate’s strategy keeps traders responsible for the final decision while assigning AI the task of organizing information, identifying signals, and lowering the technical barriers surrounding Web3.

The crypto industry had held out optimism that the Senate could finish the wide-ranging Clarity Act in the next couple of weeks. Dragging it into the later months of the year sharply reduces its odds for passage in 2026.

Clarity — even more than last year’s Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act — is the crypto industry first priority in crypto policy, with the hope it finally secures a permanent legal foundation for U.S. crypto activity.

The Senate’s floor process is a multi-stage affair that can take a few days or even longer to advance legislation past the 60-vote threshold needed in that chamber. At this stage, the crypto bill is hardly guaranteed to muster even a majority, as some Republican senators have also raised concerns with its treatment of stablecoin yield and the language of the government-ethics provision.

Senator Cynthia Lummis, a Wyoming Republican who has been a lead Clarity Act negotiator, told CoinDesk in a Wednesday interview that the most contentious sections are still open for revision that she said could bring Democrats to support it.

Republicans and industry insiders had hoped that getting the bill to the Senate floor might sharpen its urgency and help drive deals among the lawmakers to iron out the final disagreements. That could still happen if Thune can find some floor time before recess.

Bitcoin has fallen below $65,000 after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened a “massive attack” on Iran, with the cryptocurrency losing about 1.5% on Thursday.

According to data from crypto.news, Bitcoin (BTC) was trading at $64,885 on July 23, extending its retreat after an attempt to recover earlier in the week. The price later touched about $64,831 as traders responded to another escalation in the Iran war and a sharp rise in crude oil prices.

Speaking to Axios on Thursday, Trump confirmed that he was considering restarting large-scale military operations against Iran. His comments came after Iranian forces struck U.S. targets in the region and Iran-backed Houthi fighters attacked Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea.

“I am considering a massive attack. Bigger than ever before. I am close to making a decision. We are all set for it.”

Despite the warning, Trump gave no deadline for deciding whether to launch another operation. Two U.S. officials told Axios that the White House had not made a final decision or issued new military orders.

War risks have renewed pressure on Bitcoin

Discussing possible support from Israel, Trump told Axios that the country “would join in two minutes if I ask them to.” He maintained that Washington did not need assistance to conduct the operation, while acknowledging that Israeli involvement could carry “consequences” through Iranian retaliation.

Trump also claimed that Iranian officials wanted negotiations but were not prepared to accept an agreement. Two regional sources familiar with the mediation process told Axios that Iran’s leadership had rejected the latest proposal submitted through intermediaries.

“They haven’t received enough pain yet,” Trump said while questioning Tehran’s approach to the negotiations.

Military activity has intensified during the past 12 days as Washington has tried to stop Iranian attacks on commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. According to Axios, Iran has continued its regional operations despite repeated U.S. strikes, leaving the two countries without a clear path toward a ceasefire.

Bitcoin’s decline followed a familiar risk-off response to the conflict. Earlier in July, the cryptocurrency dropped more than 3% to around $61,691 after Trump declared that a tentative Iran ceasefire was over.

Binance Research analysts told Barron’s that macroeconomic pressure could limit Bitcoin’s performance through the third quarter. The analysts noted that BTC ended the first half of 2026 near $59,500, about 53% below its record high of more than $120,000 reached in October 2025.

According to Binance Research, the decline places Bitcoin within a possible historical bottoming period heading into the fourth quarter, although the firm stressed that the signal had not been confirmed. BTC’s inability to hold $65,000 on Thursday has kept attention on whether sellers can push the price back toward its July lows.

Surging oil prices have added an inflation threat

Energy markets faced fresh pressure after Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis claimed attacks on two Saudi oil tankers, Encelia and Layla, in the Red Sea. The group said it used ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones because the vessels had violated its naval blockade on Saudi Arabia.

Saudi state news agency SPA confirmed that an attack caused a fire on Encelia’s bow, although all crew members were safe.

Ship-tracking data reviewed showed that five tankers changed course after the Houthis warned vessels to avoid Saudi ports. Two of those tankers indicated the Suez Canal as their new destination, while the Houthis separately claimed they had forced about 10 ships to turn back.

Those attacks have placed the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a key route connecting the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, at the center of the conflict. Reuters reported that the passage provides Saudi Arabia with an alternative export route while traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains heavily disrupted.

Brent crude futures climbed 7% to $100.66 per barrel on Thursday, crossing $100 for the first time since late May, according to Reuters. West Texas Intermediate rose 6.3% to $92.28, while Brent’s monthly gain approached 40%.

UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo estimated that Gulf oil-loading activity had dropped to 2.5 million barrels per day over the previous seven days, compared with a 30-day average of 6 million. Staunovo also estimated that Iranian oil loadings may have fallen to zero from between 1.5 million and 2 million barrels per day at the start of July.

Goldman Sachs warned that Brent could exceed $120 during the fourth quarter if disruption in the Strait of Hormuz persists and spreads further across the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and Suez Canal. Higher energy costs could complicate the U.S. inflation outlook, while Binance Research expects macro pressure to keep Bitcoin’s recovery limited through the third quarter.