Learn agentic finance
Plain-English, sourced explainers for the AI-agent money economy — the standards, the wallets, the settlement layer, and how they compare.
Concepts
What is x402?
x402 is an open protocol that revives HTTP status 402 so any API or website can charge an AI agent a stablecoin micropayment per r…
What is AP2 (Agent Payments Protocol)?
AP2 is Google's open protocol for authorizing AI-agent spending through verifiable mandates. What it does, how it differs from x40…
What is ACP (Agentic Commerce Protocol)?
ACP is the Stripe/OpenAI-backed protocol for agent-driven checkout inside chat surfaces. How it works and how it compares with x40…
What are agentic payments?
Agentic payments are transactions initiated by AI agents rather than humans. The market, the rails (x402, Agent Pay, Intelligent C…
What is an AI agent wallet?
An agent wallet lets an AI agent spend within programmable limits without holding your private keys. Key models (MPC, smart accoun…
What are machine-to-machine (M2M) payments?
How machine payments clear: quote → pay → verify → settle → receipt. Networks, assets, facilitators, and why 98.6% settles in USDC…
What is pay-per-crawl?
Pay-per-crawl lets websites return a machine-readable price to AI crawlers and agents instead of a paywall or a block. How Cloudfl…
What is an x402 facilitator?
A facilitator verifies and settles x402 payments so servers don't need to run blockchain infrastructure. What facilitators do, who…
Agentic payments statistics (2026)
Every key number on AI-agent payments in one place: 169M cumulative transactions, $8B→$1.5T spend forecast, 98.6% USDC share, aver…
What is agentic commerce?
Agentic commerce is buying and selling conducted by AI agents on a person's behalf — discovery, cart, checkout, and payment. How i…
Why do AI agents pay in stablecoins?
98.6% of machine payments settle in USDC. The four reasons stablecoins won agent payments — speed, cost, programmability, regulato…
How to price an API when the buyer is an AI agent
Agents don't buy subscriptions — they pay per request and compare quotes in milliseconds. A practical framework for setting x402 p…
What is Coinbase Bazaar?
Coinbase Bazaar is the discovery layer for x402 — a searchable catalog of payable API endpoints that lets an AI agent find, price,…
Guides
How to accept x402 payments
Step-by-step: wallet, facilitator, the 402 server flow, implementation options (Cloudflare, Coinbase CDP, self-hosted), and pricing.
Agentic finance glossary (A-Z)
24 plain-English definitions - agentic payments, facilitators, mandates, MPC wallets, pay-per-crawl, smart accounts, USDC, x402 and more.
Comparisons
x402 vs AP2: what's the difference?
x402 executes per-request stablecoin payments; AP2 proves an agent is authorized to spend. Side-by-side comparison and why the two…
x402 vs ACP: what's the difference?
x402 meters machine-to-machine API consumption; ACP completes consumer checkouts inside chat. Which protocol fits which transactio…
AP2 vs ACP: what's the difference?
Google's AP2 proves an agent may spend; Stripe/OpenAI's ACP executes consumer checkout in chat. How the two specs relate and where…
x402 vs Stripe billing: what's the difference?
Should you meter your API with x402 or bill with Stripe? Accountless per-request stablecoin payments vs account-based subscription…
x402 vs API keys: which one fits agent traffic?
API keys assume a human signed up in advance; x402 lets an unknown agent pay per request with no account. The differences that mat…
x402 vs MCP: which one do you actually need?
x402 vs MCP is the wrong question. MCP is how an agent finds and calls a tool; x402 is how it pays for one. They compose — an agen…