Coinbase bets on agentic finance as Base payments cross 100M

Coinbase chief executive Brian Armstrong has argued that artificial intelligence will increase demand for crypto rather than replace it.

Summary

• Armstrong says AI agents will increase crypto demand by using programmable money for autonomous transactions.
• Chainalysis counted over 100 million x402 payments on Base, though meme-coin farming drove early growth.
• Coinbase combines Base, USDC, x402 and agent wallets to build its agentic finance payment stack.

In a July 27 post on X, he described Base, USDC and the x402 payment standard as the core of Coinbase's "Agentic Finance," or AiFi, strategy.

Armstrong wrote that "AI being a megatrend takes nothing away from crypto" and said AI agents would eventually complete more daily transactions than all people combined. The forecast has no set timeline. Current data shows growing x402 activity, but it does not prove that autonomous agents already exceed human payment use.

Armstrong links AI growth to programmable money

Armstrong rejected calls for crypto companies to pivot away from blockchain and focus only on AI. He said AI agents need programmable money because traditional bank accounts, cards and checkout pages depend on human identity checks and manual approval.

"If you're in crypto, pivot to AI."

I used to hear versions of this, and it's the wrong way to think about the world. It's zero sum, scarcity thinking.

Crypto is a general purpose technology. It's infrastructure, the same way electricity or the internet is infrastructure. It...
--- Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) July 26, 2026

Under Coinbase's model, software can hold a wallet, pay for an API request and receive a digital service without opening an account with each provider. Agents could buy data, computing power, research, media generation or storage through small payments that settle onchain.

The structure may raise transaction counts because one agent can make many low-value payments during a single task. However, transaction frequency does not show the total economic value of the activity. Armstrong's claim therefore remains a company thesis rather than a measured outcome.

Base and x402 form Coinbase's AiFi payment stack

Coinbase introduced Base in February 2023 as a low-cost Ethereum layer-2 network for onchain applications. The company did not build Base only for AI, but its lower fees and faster settlement later made it a main network for x402 payments.

Coinbase launched x402 in May 2025. The open protocol uses the HTTP 402 "Payment Required" status code to let websites and APIs request stablecoin payments. A client receives payment instructions, signs a blockchain transaction and gains access after the payment is checked.

USDC serves as a common settlement asset because its price tracks the U.S. dollar. Coinbase also offers Agentic Wallets, which let developers set spending and trading rules for AI systems. The wallets can pay for data and computing through x402 while operating without manual approval for each transaction.

As crypto.news previously reported, Coinbase also launched Coinbase for Agents, giving software access to trading, portfolio management and x402 payments under user-defined limits. The company later added x402 support for businesses that want to receive USDC directly from software agents.

Chainalysis counts more than 100 million Base payments

Chainalysis reported on June 3 that x402-linked payments on Base crossed 100 million transactions after about nine months of activity. The analytics company identified flows connected to the protocol and studied the wallets involved.

The report found that payments worth at least $1 made up 95% of the value transferred. It also said agentic payment wallets tended to be newer, held smaller balances and owned 550% more asset types than typical Base users.

Still, Chainalysis said meme-coin farming drove much of the early transaction growth. That detail limits claims that all 100 million payments came from independent AI agents buying useful services. Automated scripts, incentive campaigns and other software activity can also create x402 transfers.

As crypto.news reported in June, x402 had already passed 100 million Base transactions while Armstrong and other industry leaders promoted crypto as a payment layer for AI. Earlier crypto.news coverage also found that x402 activity reached 75.41 million transactions over one 30-day period, with Base and USDC leading usage.

Coinbase expands agent tools before quarterly results

Coinbase has continued adding products around the same strategy. Agentic.market allows software agents to find and purchase services using USDC. Developers can also use Coinbase tools to build wallets, set transaction policies and charge for API calls through x402.

Outside Coinbase, companies have begun testing the protocol for travel, cloud services and online content. Travala launched an AI hotel-booking system that lets agents search more than 2.2 million properties and pay with USDC on Base.

The market remains early. Coinbase's products show that machines can initiate blockchain payments, but adoption figures depend on how analysts classify agent activity. Security, spending controls, identity rules and service quality will also shape wider use at present.

Coinbase will publish its second-quarter 2026 results on July 30 after U.S. markets close. The report may give investors more detail on stablecoin revenue, Base activity and developer products, although the company has not said it will disclose AiFi revenue separately.