x402 Besides trading Meme coins, what other projects are worth paying attention to?

x402 may be experiencing some fluctuations in popularity at present, but in the eyes of long-termists, it has only just entered its true construction phase.

Written by: Biteye core contributor Viee

To understand x402, we need to start with a "legacy feature" that has been shelved for nearly thirty years.

As early as 1997, the HTTP protocol reserved status code 402, representing "Payment Required." However, due to the lack of feasible payment methods, it has remained unused.

Today, crypto-native stablecoins have matured, L2s have reduced payment costs, and the rise of AI Agents has brought real micropayment demand. Thus, Coinbase leveraged this "long-dormant button" to launch the x402 protocol: allowing anyone or any AI to access paid content without registering an account or switching pages, enabling on-chain payment instantly.

What appears to be a simple "automatic payment" is actually an entire ecosystem being rebuilt behind the scenes. From protocol standards to infrastructure and upper-layer applications, x402 has the potential to reconstruct the payment logic of the internet.

This article will delve into the emerging x402 ecosystem to see, beyond Meme, which protocols, chains, infrastructure, and applications are truly operational.

1. Protocol Layer: Enabling AI Agents with Payment Capabilities

The protocol layer of x402 is not a single standard, but a set of modular combinations addressing three key issues: how AI Agents communicate, how they pay, and how they establish identity and trust.

The core is the x402 protocol itself, designed based on HTTP 402 status code. It allows AIs to automatically receive payment requests and complete on-chain transfers with stablecoins like USDC when accessing paid content or APIs, all without registration or page switching.

To enable collaboration between AIs, Google proposed the A2A (Agent-to-Agent) protocol to standardize communication and task handover between agents. Anthropic also launched the MCP protocol, providing interfaces for AI to access tools and contextual data. Based on MCP, Google further released the AP2 payment protocol, enabling AI Agents to call services and complete automatic payments as needed, compatible with both traditional payments and x402.

The key to implementing these protocols is Ethereum's EIP-3009 extension. It allows users to authorize token transfers via signatures without paying Gas fees, solving the "AI wallet has no ETH" payment problem. Complementing this is the ongoing ERC-8004, which establishes on-chain identity and reputation systems for AI Agents, recording execution history and trust scores to help service providers assess agent reliability.

In summary, the x402 protocol layer is gradually building a "language + currency + trust" system for AI services, enabling AI Agents to transact, collaborate, and pay without human involvement. This is the first step for the entire ecosystem to take off.

2. Infrastructure Layer: Making Payment Requests Work

The x402 protocol defines the solution, but what truly brings it to life is a complete set of infrastructure responsible for verifying requests, completing payments, coordinating services, and connecting AI with the blockchain.

First is Cloudflare. As a global cloud platform, it co-founded the x402 Foundation with Coinbase and integrated the protocol into its CDN nodes and developer tools. Cloudflare not only provides a global distribution network but also supports a "use resources first, pay later" delayed payment mechanism, helping AI Agents smoothly access content and complete settlements.

Next is the x402 Facilitator, i.e., payment aggregators (including multiple projects), responsible for helping AI agents complete a series of on-chain processes such as "payment on behalf, settlement, and broadcasting." Users or AIs only need to initiate an HTTP 402 request, and the Facilitator will pay Gas, package the transaction, and broadcast it on-chain. The settlement process uses the EIP-3009 standard, allowing one-time authorization for USDC deductions, with no need for the AI to hold tokens or sign manually, greatly simplifying on-chain interactions.

From the data below, Coinbase remains the largest Facilitator, processing over 1.35 million transactions and covering 80,000 buyers; PayAI is active on chains like Solana and Base, with a total transaction volume of $280,000 and a user count even surpassing Coinbase. Others such as X402rs, Thirdweb, and Open X402 are also vying for market share.

Beyond Facilitators, there are also "native settlement blockchains" built specifically for x402. A representative project is Kite AI, one of the first Layer1 blockchains to fully embed x402 payment primitives at the base layer, supported by institutions such as Coinbase Ventures and PayPal Ventures. It does not directly handle payment verification (not a Facilitator), but provides an execution and settlement environment for x402 transactions, supporting agents to automatically initiate, receive, and reconcile on-chain payments through standardized authorization instructions.

On the execution layer, besides the native chain Kite AI designed for AI payments, Peaq in the DePIN sector also plays a key role. Peaq is a public chain focused on the machine economy and natively supports the x402 protocol, enabling devices and agents to automatically complete payments and settlements.

The representative project of the x402 collaboration layer is Questflow, where developers can publish agent tasks, set prices, and complete on-chain settlements directly via x402. It has already partnered with Virtuals, Gate, and others.

In addition, AurraCloud and Meridian provide multi-chain settlement and custodial services for the x402 protocol.

In summary, the infrastructure layer of x402 is being built around three core issues: how to send requests, how to collect payments securely, and how to quickly deploy on different chains, which determines whether the entire payment system can truly operate.

3. Application Layer: Which Applications Are Actually Using x402?

The x402 protocol and infrastructure are in place, but the application layer is still in its infancy, with very few projects implemented so far.

• Daydreams: Building an LLM inference platform with x402 payments.
• Heurist Deep Research: A Web3-native AI research platform where users pay per query with USDC to automatically generate multi-page research reports.
• Gloria AI: Implements pay-per-article news using x402.
• Snack Money API: A micropayment interface for X, Farcaster, etc., enabling small payments and tipping around identity and social interactions.
• tip.md: Allows AI assistants to help users complete crypto tipping directly in chat interfaces, with USDC tips processed through MCP+x402 for a complete payment flow.
• Firecrawl: A web scraping and cleaning API that converts websites into LLM-usable data, charging per call via x402.

Overall, the x402 application layer is still exploring, with functional platforms just starting out and no scale effect yet. It remains to be seen who can first deliver truly usable, payable, and reusable products.

4. Meme: Large Price and Popularity Fluctuations

As the popularity of x402-related concepts rises, the market has quickly seen a batch of native Meme projects "riding the narrative," the most representative being PING issued on the Base chain. On its launch day, its market cap quickly surpassed 10 millions USD.

Besides PING, tokens like "PENG" and "x402" have also appeared in the community. These Meme tokens are not yet core to the protocol but can provide attention, hype, and early liquidity.

5. From Protocol to Implementation, What Issues Does x402 Still Face?

Although the concept of x402 is eye-catching, there are still many practical issues to overcome before it can be truly implemented.

First, there is a lack of truly usable products. Most projects are still in the testnet or proof-of-concept stage, and the user experience is still rough.

Second, the tech stack is complex and integration costs are high. x402 involves a new set of protocols, integrating payment, signature transfers, agent communication, and other modules, posing a high barrier for developers.

Third, compliance risks. Featuring "no account, no redirect payment," it is efficient but bypasses the KYC/AML requirements of traditional payment systems, which may raise regulatory concerns in some regions.

Fourth, network effects have yet to form. The core of payment protocols lies in ecosystem collaboration, but currently, few services and platforms have integrated x402, and the ecosystem has not yet become self-sustaining.

In summary, x402 is still some distance from "mass adoption," with several hurdles to overcome from technology to real-world implementation.

6. Participation Opportunities

From a participation perspective, the long-term opportunities for x402 lie more in the layout of infrastructure and key platforms.

First are the base chains and infrastructure. x402 relies heavily on Ethereum ecosystem standards such as EIP-3009 and ERC-8004, with Base currently being the main implementation chain. Its stablecoin closed loop is strong, and its developer environment is friendly, making it likely to incubate leading products first. Solana also has advantages in high-frequency payments, suitable for agent microtransaction scenarios.

Next are native settlement blockchains like Kite AI, as well as payment aggregators and service platforms such as PayAI, Meridian, and AurraCloud. They are responsible for payment verification, covering Gas, and connecting APIs. Once they become general entry points, their value will scale rapidly.

As for tokens, caution is advised. Currently, x402-related tokens are small in scale and highly volatile, with many Meme coins still driven by narrative. Projects with real payment implementation or platform utility are more worthy of attention.

7. KOL Perspectives

In the current climate of divided market opinions, the views of many frontline builders and KOLs on the x402 ecosystem are also worth noting.

Haotian points out that the current x402 boom is mostly driven by Meme speculation, but the real "main course"—technological implementation and ecosystem formation—has yet to begin. Only after market selection will quality projects emerge. He believes that treating x402 as a short-term speculation is a misunderstanding of the logic and rhythm of the entire track.

Laobai, from a historical perspective, notes that micropayments are not a new concept. From early Bitcoin and Lightning Network to Nano, IOTA, and BSV, the crypto space has repeatedly tried to promote small transaction applications, but large-scale adoption has always been difficult. The difference with x402 is that, for the first time, it has found the real "subject" in need of micropayments: AI Agents, rather than human users.

Danny takes an even broader view, pointing out that the greater potential behind x402 is as the payment infrastructure for the "machine economy." From on-chain knowledge collaboration and API economy to AI-driven DAO governance, all these M2M (machine-to-machine) transaction demands naturally require a frictionless, accountless, and automatically executable payment layer.

Blue Fox Notes, from an architectural perspective, believes that Facilitators, as the key link in payment verification and execution, are becoming one of the most core infrastructures in the sector. Projects like PayAI, Coinbase, and Pieverse have already formed a clear competitive landscape.

Finally, Zhixiong Pan raises a long-term question: Can Agents truly "hold and pay with tokens"? This involves key mechanisms such as private key custody and permission management.

In summary, x402 may be experiencing some fluctuations in popularity at present, but in the eyes of long-termists, it has only just entered its true construction phase.