X402: THE PAYMENT LAYER FOR THE AGENTIC INTERNET

Summary from the TLDR Crypto newsletter

Coinbase's x402 protocol turns the web's “Payment Required” status code into a live crypto-powered paywall, letting AI agents and APIs transact autonomously. Since launching in May with Cloudflare as a founding partner, x402 has enabled developers to earn directly from API calls without keys or sign-ups via instant micropayments. Though still early (90K transactions, $50K in volume), tools like thirdweb's Nexus now let anyone monetize APIs in under a minute. The vision is, as AI agents begin powering a new machine-to-machine economy, APIs with x402 will become the default data endpoints for billions of autonomous requests, forming the foundation of “Agentic GDP” (the economic output of intelligent agents transacting on the open web).