Jesse Pollak: AI Agents Are the Next Wave of Crypto Payments

Odaily reports that Jesse Pollak, head of the Base chain, stated in an interview that AI agents are rapidly gaining autonomy and increasingly require native, programmable payment systems. Currently, approximately $48 million in payments have flowed through the x402 protocol, with about 95% of transactions occurring on the Base network. Jesse Pollak pointed out that x402, an open-source payment protocol co-developed by Coinbase in collaboration with Microsoft, Google, and Mastercard, enables on-demand API payments without the need for traditional subscription systems. Crypto infrastructure allows AI agents to move funds globally, instantly, and at low cost to pay for services such as data access, computation, or travel bookings. The long-term vision is to create an open service marketplace where software can discover and purchase digital services in real-time without human intervention.