Crypto exchange Coinbase and tech titan Google are moving to wire stablecoins directly into the machinery of AI agents.
In a new update, Coinbase says the two companies have unveiled a system that lets AI agents not only communicate but also pay each other.
The framework, called the Agentic Payments Protocol (AP2), extends Google Cloud’s Agent2Agent infrastructure. The addition of Coinbase’s x402 integration introduces stablecoin settlement into workflows that previously stopped short of economic activity.
Coinbase and Google worked with Lowe’s Innovation Lab to show an AI agent diagnosing a do-it-yourself project, sourcing products, and completing checkout, all in one prompt, without a card swipe.
“Stablecoins make this possible at the speed of code, unlocking micropayments and new models of automation that legacy rails simply can’t support.”
The companies say x402 is the first extension built into AP2 and the only facilitator tied to stablecoin transactions. The layer allows agents to monetize their own services, compensate other agents, or handle micropayments on behalf of users.
“This means that certain tasks which previously required manual oversight – like paying for data crawls, services, or microtasks –can now be executed seamlessly on behalf of users by the agents themselves.”
Developers are expected to benefit from new pay-per-use models, such as per-crawl fees or bug-flagging charges, while businesses can monetize services and route instant payments inside agent-to-agent workflows with lower fraud risk.
“With x402 stablecoin payments, a customer can pay in USDC with a single tap—no card numbers—while retailers benefit from instant, final settlement with lower fraud risk.”
The implications extend beyond retail. Autonomous commerce could evolve into micro-economies, where research agents pay archival services per document crawl and customer-support bots compensate translation agents on the spot.
“Payments are just the beginning. As agents take on increasingly complex responsibilities… Seamless transactions will become a core enabler of autonomous workflows.”
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