Original Article Title: "x402 Pragmatist Checklist | Who Is Actually Driving x402?"

Original Article Author: KarenZ, Foresight News

In the current rapid development of AI, AI agents have gradually become independent economic entities. They need to autonomously purchase data, call APIs, rent computing power, etc. However, the traditional payment system is struggling to meet these high-frequency, small-value, automated payment needs. It is in this context that the x402 protocol has emerged.

x402 is an open-source payment protocol led by Coinbase and supported by giants such as Anthropic, Amazon Web Services, Hyperbolic, Google, and Cloudflare. The core function of x402 is to enable AI agents to autonomously make microtransactions using the HTTP 402 status code. This allows AI agents or software clients to pay directly with USDC without needing an API key, enabling machine-to-machine (M2M) autonomous settlement and empowering AI agents to truly have the ability to "pay."

In the article "PayAI Overtakes PING! x402 Ecosystem Value Anchor Undergoes Transformation," we discussed the ebb and flow of PING and PayAI's growth momentum, which actually reflects an important issue: the x402 ecosystem is transitioning from concept to reality and from hype to practicality.

This article will focus on the x402 ecosystem's "Infrastructure Faction" and "Pragmatist Faction" projects (excluding the x402 core development team). It should be noted that the x402 ecosystem is still in the extremely early stages of infrastructure development and business model validation, with a lack of mature reference systems for project evaluation. It is still too early to determine whether a project can succeed; the key lies in whether the product can create real demand, determining the "essentiality" and "high frequency" of the demand to drive users and AI agents to actively use x402 for payments, while avoiding falling into the trap of pseudo-demand. It is also crucial to assess whether the product has a clear path to profitability and can support long-term project operation.

x402 Facilitators / Services / Endpoints

Kite AI

Kite AI is building the foundational transaction layer of the "Agentic Internet," providing a unified identity, payment, and governance infrastructure for autonomous intelligent agents. On February 10, 2025, Kite AI launched the AI Consensus Mechanism PoAI (Proof of AI) L1 Sovereign Blockchain Testnet.

Kite AI has natively integrated with the x402 Agent Payment Standard, positioning itself as the primary execution and settlement layer for the protocol, allowing AI agents to seamlessly send, receive, and reconcile payments through standardized intent commands.

In September 2025, Kite AI announced the completion of a total of $33 million in funding, with the latest Series A funding reaching $18 million, led by PayPal Ventures and General Catalyst. The funding will be used to accelerate Kite AI's advancement of the Intelligent Entity Internet. Subsequently, Kite AI also received a strategic investment from Coinbase Ventures, with the new funds being used to support the development of its autonomous AI agent payment infrastructure and to collaborate with Coinbase to accelerate the widespread adoption of the x402 protocol.

Questflow

Questflow focuses on building an orchestration layer for a multi-agent economy, allowing AI agents to autonomously research, take actions, and earn rewards on-chain, supporting multi-agent collaboration, cross-Web2/Web3 service integration, and enabling agent-to-agent payments and monetization through the x402 protocol.

Questflow is a key player in the x402 ecosystem and a partner in the Google Agent Payment Protocol (AP2). Recent developments in the x402 space include expanding x402 to networks like Mantle and X Layer.

Questflow's autonomous network task agent group S.A.N.T.A operates as a core component of the Virtuals protocol, acting as a gateway for the x402 protocol. S.A.N.T.A is rolling out the SANTA Multi-Chain Facilitator, currently supporting the Mantle network.

On the funding front, Questflow completed a $1.5 million angel round in July 2024, led by MiraclePlus (founded by Qi Lu, former Microsoft executive vice president, YC partner, and former COO of Baidu). One year later, in July 2025, Questflow completed a $6.5 million seed round led by cyber•Fund, with participation from Delphi Labs and receiving grants from Aptos, Coinbase Developer Platform, and Virtuals Protocol.

Questflow itself did not issue a coin, but its S.A.N.T.A token currently has a market capitalization of 11.6 million US dollars.

Crossmint

Crossmint is an enterprise-grade API platform for wallets, stablecoins, and agency commerce. In March 2025, it announced raising 23.6 million US dollars in seed, Series A, and strategic rounds, led by Ribbit Capital, with participation from Franklin Templeton, Nyca, First Round, and Lightspeed Faction. In September, Crossmint received a strategic investment from Circle Ventures.

Crossmint's solution enables enterprises to easily create embedded wallets (optional custodial or non-custodial), issue and distribute NFTs, and manage on-chain credentials. Additionally, Crossmint has designed a dedicated API for AI agents, allowing them to independently manage funds, execute transactions, and obtain digital credentials.

Previously, Crossmint released an example of agency commerce implemented using the XMTP protocol on the Base app, featuring a custom payment processor, "x402 Server," for cryptocurrency to Amazon transactions.

Next, x402 Facilitators will be introduced. x402 Facilitators are service providers that support handling x402 payments on the Solana and EVM networks, providing a unified endpoint access to validate and settle on-chain payments for HTTP resources under the x402 protocol.

Source: x402scan

These Facilitators are the core infrastructure layer of the x402 payment ecosystem, responsible for validating and settling on-chain payments for HTTP resources using the x402 protocol.

PayAI (Token with a 27.3 Million USD Market Cap)

By transaction volume, PayAI has become the largest x402 Facilitator outside of Coinbase, supporting multiple networks such as Base, Solana, Polygon, and more. As of the time of writing, PayAI has processed 13.78% of the total x402 transaction count and accounts for 13.27% of the total transaction volume. In contrast, Coinbase's market share of transaction volume has dropped to approximately 80%.

In addition to the x402 payment service, PayAI has also launched the following products:

· x402 Echo Merchant: Supports end-to-end testing of any x402 client.

· Freelance AI: An AI agent marketplace built on open technologies such as libp2p, IPFS, ElizaOS, and Solana, allowing agents to publish services, find experts, and securely handle payments.

PayAI is currently developing the following features:

· CT Agent monetization feature.

· Token Gateway: Allows merchants to receive payments using their own tokens and grant functionality access to token holders.

Regarding PayAI's tokenomics, the total token supply is 1 billion, and all tokens will be in circulation at launch (March 2025). The PayAI team will purchase 20% of the token supply at token issuance and transfer it to the project treasury, which will be used for operations, marketing, and future token releases such as community rewards, partnerships, etc. Specifically, half of the treasury tokens will provide liquidity to generate fees, and the other half will vest linearly over 1 year.

x402.rs

x402.rs is specifically designed for native crypto API, pay-as-you-go services, and autonomous agents, and also operates as an x402 Facilitator.

thirdweb

thirdweb, as a Web3 developer platform, has recently made moves in the x402 space, including:

Support for x402 payments in the thirdweb SDK, enabling developers to easily and automatically monetize their backend and agent services through seamless encrypted payments.

Launch of Nexus, allowing AI agents to use services without an account or API key, i.e., supporting the monetization of endpoints through x402 so that agents can instantly discover and pay for API access. thirdweb states that its dedicated Gas Facilitator wallet supports over 80 chains and 4000+ tokens.

Corbits

Corbits focuses on building software for "Agentic Commerce." Corbits' strength lies in its use of the Faremeter framework, which is open-source, modular, and designed specifically for x402, supporting agent-driven transactions and allowing flexible integration with any payment standard, network, or wallet through plugin modules, enabling rapid adoption of new payment solutions and digital assets. Currently, Corbits is mainly building on the Polygon and Solana networks.

It is worth mentioning that in late October, Corbits partnered with the AI project Dark (@darkresearchai) to release an open-source agent and mobile toolset named Mallory, combining AI chat with real-world functionality, supported by x402 and built on React Native.

For example, when you chat with Mallory, Mallory will take real-world actions, such as using Nansen to analyze on-chain data, without requiring you to subscribe to anything.

Daydreams (Token Market Cap $12 Million)

Daydreams.Systems focuses on building autonomous agents and applications on the x402 payment rail, currently supporting networks such as Base, Solana, and Starknet.

Within the Daydreams.Systems ecosystem, there are three main tools: the open-source agent framework Daydreams, Daydreams Router, and the autonomous agent operation platform LUCID.

Among these, Daydreams supports building autonomous AI agents with a composable Context architecture, enabling the creation of agents from modular components, and leveraging real memory, MCP integration, and TypeScript-first design. Additionally, Daydreams.Systems launched Daydreams Router in July, which is a crypto-native way to access cutting-edge models like GPT, Claude, Groq, Gemini, Gwen, enabling intelligent routing of AI model requests through instant USDC settlement, powered by x402. The upcoming LUCID will combine AI, x402, and ERC-8004.

Daydreams.Systems is also one of the x402 Facilitators, currently supporting Solana, Base, and Abstract networks.

At the time of writing, the Daydreams token DREAMS has a current market cap of $12 million.

AurraCloud (Token $7.5 Million)

AurraCloud focuses on building x402-driven AI agent infrastructure, allowing users to create AI agents in minutes and providing hosted MCP tools, smart wallet functionality, x402 payments, and x402 gate-controlled reasoning services.

AurraCloud also operates as an x402 Facilitator, helping merchants and businesses quickly adopt crypto payments.

The AurraCloud token AURA currently has a market capitalization of $7.5 million.

Mogami

Mogami focuses on building an open-source software stack for the x402 protocol, providing an SDK, tools, and services built in Java.

Mogami's core products include the Mogami x402 SDK, the x402 Payment Gateway known as the Mogami Facility Server, the x402 Console, and also serves as an x402 Facilitator acting as the payment gateway for x402.

AEON

AEON focuses on building a full-stack encrypted payment framework, offering the encrypted payment orchestration solution AEON Pay, connecting encrypted payments with global fiat acquiring channels to achieve seamless on-chain and off-chain settlement. AEON also provides a Stripe-like experience through AEON Checkout and AEON AI Payment, offering encrypted payment checkout infrastructure for Web2/Web3 merchants and AI agents.

On October 28, AEON announced the launch of an x402 Facilitator on the BNB Chain, enabling AI agents to securely and verifiably execute on-chain transactions. Additionally, after each transaction is completed, a tamper-proof receipt containing the agent's unique identity (based on ERC-8004) is generated, creating tamper-resistant audit trails for accountability and reconciliation. Beyond the BNB Chain, AEON will continue to expand the x402 standard and its AI payments on multiple blockchains.

It is worth mentioning that AEON was previously selected for the BNB Chain's tenth season of the Most Valuable Builder (MVB) accelerator program.

Others

Firecrawl

Firecrawl offers an easy-to-integrate API and SDK for AI platforms, converting websites into LLM-ready data, with output formats including Markdown, JSON, HTML, images, and news content.

Recently, Firecrawl added a support for x402 endpoint using the x402 payment standard, allowing any wallet-equipped agent to perform web searches and choose to scrape search results. Prices are displayed through HTTP 402 requests, USDC payments settle on-chain, and results are automatically returned.

Firecrawl completed a $14.5 million Series A funding round led by Nexus Venture Partners in August 2025, with other investors including Y Combinator, Zapier, Shopify CEO Tobias Lütke, among others.

Heurist (Token Market Cap $6.7 million)

Heurist is building a full-stack AI infrastructure, including Heurist Cloud (providing AI models through a simple API), Heurist Mesh (an agent marketplace), and Heurist Chain (ZK Layer-2 for agent payments).

Heurist has integrated x402 into Heurist Mesh and Deep Research, where Heurist Mesh enables agents to transact autonomously, build specialized functions, and settle payments on-chain, and Heurist Deep Research is an AI-driven research platform built for Web3, charging 1 USDC per query (paid via x402).

Heurist's HEU token has a maximum supply of 1 billion tokens, with token utility including payment for AI services, staking, governance voting, and serving as the Gas token for transactions on Heurist Chain.

t54.ai

t54.ai focuses on building a trust layer for "trusted agent finance," specifically targeting the x402 protocol to provide a secure infrastructure to help AI agents mitigate risks in autonomous payments and transactions, enabling frictionless agent economics.

t54.ai's core product is the agent payment foundational trust layer x402-secure, enhancing the security of the x402 protocol, providing programmable trust and verifiable payments, and offering pre-settlement protection through the t54.ai native risk engine Trustline.

Additionally, t54.ai provides a dashboard on the health of the x402 ecosystem.

Tools

x402 Ecosystem

The x402 Ecosystem is an x402 ecosystem aggregator website officially released by Coinbase, listing x402 ecosystem innovation projects, tools, and applications in terms of client integrations, services/endpoints, infrastructure and tools, learning and community resources, and Facilitators.

x402scan

x402scan is an x402 protocol ecosystem monitoring and analytics tool launched by Merit Systems, currently supporting the Base and Solana networks.

x402scan is an on-chain explorer + proxy dashboard for the x402 ecosystem, providing real-time tracking of all x402 payments, proxy activity, transaction data, and Facilitators, helping developers, AI proxies, and users gain insights into the operation of Agentic Commerce.

x402station

x402station is a comprehensive x402 analytics platform used to monitor x402 services, track performance, obtain real-time x402 analytics insights, and explore pay-as-you-go APIs supported by the x402 protocol.

x402 Extension

Vistara Labs / b402

Vistara Labs is a participant in Binance Labs' sixth-season Incubation Program (September 2023–) and completed a Pre-Seed funding round in November 2023, led by D1 Ventures and Factor.

Vistara Labs is an Internet proxy execution layer. Its proxy internet layer Vistara OS transforms passive browsing into real-time deployment, remixing, and revenue generation, supported by the Zara Agents Engine.

Vistara Labs' in-house development factory, Zara, recently enabled seamless payments between proxies using x402, supporting one-click deployment of AI-driven Web3 micro-businesses (e.g., content monetization).

Vistara Labs announced on October 25, 2025, that it would bring x402 to the BNB Chain through b402. b402 will support proxy payments using all BEP-20 tokens, primarily achieved through B402 relays acting as trusted intermediaries. Most BEP-20 tokens have not implemented EIP-3009 to handle signature-native "permit transfers."

The Zara token, with a current market value of $1.8 million, has recently experienced a price drop, possibly due to the removal of references to Zara in the Vistara Labs official Twitter bio.

Pieverse

At the end of this month, Pieverse announced the launch of the x402b protocol, bridging the x402 protocol to the BNB Chain through the Pieverse Facilitator.

Specifically, Pieverse enables gasless payments through the support of the EIP-3009 standard with the USDT-wrapped token pieUSD. Additionally, its customized Facilitator automatically generates jurisdiction-compliant receipts during payment settlement and immutably stores them on the BNB Greenfield to address tax and audit concerns.

In late October, Pieverse successfully closed a $7 million strategic funding round with lead investments from Animoca Brands and UOB Ventures. Pieverse had previously received support from the Binance MVB Program Season 9.

Pieverse conducted a Pre-TGE event on October 29th from 16:00 to 18:00 in the Binance Wallet.

Meridian (Market Cap: $2.9 million)

Meridian is a blockchain project focusing on the x402 payment protocol, designed for the AI agent economy.

Meridian has chosen Across to implement its x402 protocol. Meridian believes, "When payments must traverse different EVM networks with their own RPC configurations, Across is the best technology for achieving rapid settlement of AI agents and transacting on x402. When sending back to Ethereum from L2, there is an anti-fraud window that can sometimes take up to 7 days to settle. Meridian leverages Across technology to entirely bypass this anti-fraud window, supporting all EVM chains for swift settlement. This approach also enables agents using x402 to transact with each other using tokens other than USDC."

The Meridian token, MRDN, currently has a market value of $2.9 million.

Summary

Although the x402 Protocol has attracted support from many leading tech companies and crypto projects, and ecosystem participants continue to grow, the x402 ecosystem is still in its early development stage.

Community users' attitudes towards x402 show a clear polarization, with some expecting and supporting the new paradigm of the agency economy, while others question the protocol's maturity, real-world application value, dispute resolution, and more.

According to the x402 roadmap, in 2026, the x402 Protocol will explore integration with x402 Bazaar and ERC-8004, e-commerce refunds and escrow processes, arbitrary token support, Facilitator Router, and other user-focused initiatives.

The progress of these roadmap projects signifies the x402 ecosystem's transition from concept to infrastructure development, further to application implementation and ecosystem enhancement. If these goals can be achieved on schedule or ahead of schedule in 2026, it will further validate the feasibility and value of x402 as the standard for agency economy payments, potentially driving the entire AI agent ecosystem from the experimental stage to the commercial application stage.

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