Coinbase bets on agency finance, Base payments exceed 100 million

Coinbase CEO: Artificial intelligence will drive demand for cryptocurrencies, not replace

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong believes that artificial intelligence will increase demand for cryptocurrencies, not replace it.

Summary

Armstrong said that AI agents will increase crypto demand by using programmable currencies for autonomous transactions. Chainalysis statistics show that there are more than 100 million x402 payments on the Base network, but early growth is mainly driven by Memecoin mining. Coinbase integrates Base, USDC, x402 and proxy wallet to build its proxy financial payment stack.

In a July 27 post posted to X, he described Base, USDC and x402 payment standards as the core of Coinbase's "agent finance", or AiFi, strategy. "AI, as a general trend, will not take anything away from cryptocurrencies," Armstrong wrote, adding that AI agents will eventually complete more transactions per day than all humans combined. There is no set timetable for this forecast. Current data shows growth in x402 activity, but does not prove that autonomous agents have surpassed human payment use.

Armstrong correlates AI growth with programmable currency

Armstrong dismissed calls for crypto companies to abandon blockchain and focus only on AI. He said AI agents require programmable currency because traditional bank accounts, bank cards and checkout pages rely on manual authentication and manual approval. "If you are in the field of encryption, turn to AI"-he has often heard similar words in the past and believes this is the wrong way of thinking, a zero-sum, scarcity thinking. Cryptocurrency is a universal technology and infrastructure, just like electricity or the Internet is infrastructure.

Under Coinbase's model, software can hold wallets, pay for API requests, and receive digital services without opening an account at each provider. Agents can purchase data, computing power, research, media generation or storage services through micropayments settled on-chain. This structure may increase the number of transactions because an agent can make many low-value payments in a single task. However, transaction frequency does not reflect the total economic value of the activity. As a result, Armstrong's statement remains a company argument rather than actual measurement.

Base and x402 form Coinbase's AiFi payment stack

Coinbase launched Base in February 2023 as a low-cost Ethereum Layer 2 network for on-chain applications. The company didn't just build Base for AI, but its lower fees and faster settlement speeds later made it the main network for x402 payments. Coinbase will launch x402 in May 2025. The open protocol uses the HTTP 402 "Payment Required" status code to allow websites and APIs to request stablecin payments. The client receives the payment instruction, signs the blockchain transaction, and obtains access rights after payment verification. USDC serves as a general clearing asset because its price is pegged to the US dollar. Coinbase also provides proxy wallets that allow developers to set spending and trading rules for AI systems. These wallets can pay for data and calculate fees via x402 without requiring manual approval for every transaction.

As previously reported, Coinbase has also launched "Coinbase for Agents" that gives software access to transactions, portfolio management and x402 payments under user-defined restrictions. The company subsequently added x402 support to businesses that wanted to receive USDC directly from software agents.

Chainalysis Statistics: More than 100 million payments on Base

Chainalysis reported on June 3 that payments related to x402 on Base exceeded 100 million transactions after about nine months of activity. The analytics firm identified the capital flows associated with the agreement and studied the associated wallets. The report found that payments worth at least $1 accounted for 95% of total transfers. The report also pointed out that agent payment wallets are typically newer, hold smaller balances, and have 550% more asset types than ordinary Base users.

However, Chainalysis said Memecoin mining drove most of the growth in early transactions. This detail limits the argument that all 100 million payments are attributed to independent AI agents purchasing useful services. Automated scripts, incentive activities and other software activities may also result in x402 transfers.

It was previously reported in June that x402 has more than 100 million transactions on Base, and industry leaders such as Armstrong are promoting cryptocurrency as a payment layer for AI. Earlier reports also found that x402 activity reached 75.41 million transactions in 30 days, with Base and USDC leading the way in usage.

Coinbase expands proxy tools ahead of quarterly report

Coinbase continues to add products around the same strategy. Agentic.market allows software agents to use USDC to find and purchase services. Developers can also use the Coinbase tool to build wallets, set trading policies, and charge for API calls through x402. Outside of Coinbase, companies have begun testing the protocol for travel, cloud services and online content. Travala has launched an AI hotel reservation system that allows agents to search more than 2.2 million properties and make payments using USDC on Base.

The market is still in its early stages. Coinbase's products show that machines can initiate blockchain payments, but adoption of data depends on how analysts classify agent activity. Security, spending controls, identity rules and quality of service will also affect current wider applications. Coinbase will release its second quarter 2026 results on July 30, after the U.S. market closes. The report may give investors a more detailed understanding of stablecoin revenue, Base activity and developer products, but the company has not said it will disclose AiFi revenue separately.