# 1. A Mysterious Code from 30 Years Ago
Thirty years ago, the HTTP protocol contained a line of mysterious code that was never activated—402 Payment Required.
Its meaning is simple: when you access a resource that requires payment, the server will return a 402 status code, informing you of the amount to be paid, the type of asset, the receiving address, and so on.
Imagine if, while browsing the web, watching videos, or using AI models, you could trigger a request and the system would automatically complete the payment without needing to log in or enter a password; everything would be done seamlessly in the background.
This is the vision of 402—enabling the internet to have the capability of "automatic settlement."
But strangely, this status code has remained dormant for thirty years after its proposal.
Why has such a "futuristic" design never been truly realized?
The answer lies in the evolution of payment infrastructure and AI.
# 2. A Reboot After Thirty Years: The Perfect Encounter of AI and Payments
A piece of code that was shelved has finally found its time.
In recent years, the underlying conditions of the internet have fundamentally changed:
- Stablecoins have become the "native currency of the internet," allowing machines to directly hold and settle value;
- Low-cost Rollups and high-performance settlement chains have made micropayments truly "affordable," with transaction fees as low as one-thousandth of a cent;
- AI Agents are transitioning from tools to "economic entities," actively purchasing services, invoking models, and generating revenue.
When these conditions converge, value can finally flow freely on the internet like data.
Thus, in May 2025, Coinbase launched the x402 protocol—a standard that resurrects the "payment request" status code, enabling the internet for the first time to truly possess the capability of "automatic settlement."
Its significance is akin to how HTTP in 1993 allowed the internet to transmit web pages; today, x402 allows the internet to transmit value.
# 3. The "Instant Transaction Era" of AI and APIs
x402 transforms commercial activities between machines from "manually triggered" to "protocol-native":
- On-demand invocation, instant payment
AI agents can make real-time payments to access data or models without needing an API Key or preloaded funds.
For example:
- Research AI automatically pays each time it calls market data;
- During model training, proprietary information is unlocked based on retrieval volume.
- Automation of infrastructure consumption
- Computing power, bandwidth, and storage can be billed per use:
- Each GPU inference incurs an automatic charge;
Decentralized models settle based on usage rather than subscription models.
- Autonomous transactions between machines
- AI characters in games automatically purchase resources;
- IoT devices automatically pay for bandwidth and sensor data.
All of this is evolving the internet from an "information network" to a "machine economy network"—
A market system composed of countless intelligent agents that can negotiate, trade, and settle on their own.
# 4. Big Tech Bets: x402 as the "Payment Foundation" of the AI Economy
This is not just a conceptual hype; multiple tech and financial giants are already taking action:
- Coinbase: The initiator of the x402 protocol and the official operator of Base L2, aiming to build value settlement infrastructure for the "agent-based network."
- Google: Launched the A2A x402 extension, enabling a complete closed loop from "task discovery → negotiation → payment → delivery" between AI agents.
- a16z: One of the top venture capital firms, heavily investing in the "agent-based business" track, believes that x402's speed, cost, and programmability far exceed those of Visa and SWIFT.
The entry of mainstream giants signifies that the "machine-to-machine economy" is no longer just a concept but the starting point for the next form of internet economy.
# 5. Data Doesn't Lie: The Real Performance of x402
From on-chain data, x402 is not an empty narrative.
- The ecosystem has recorded a total of 2,593,100 payments, with a total payment amount of approximately $2.9369 million;
- The average payment is only $1.13, perfectly aligning with the characteristics of "high-frequency small payments";
- Currently, there are about 137,800 buyers and about 20,000 sellers, with a ratio of approximately 7:1, indicating that the ecosystem has a certain bilateral market scale;
- The total market value is approximately $822 million, with a 24-hour trading volume of about $203 million, indicating extremely high liquidity.
These data show that there is indeed a significant demand for real usage within the x402 network, especially in the fields of micropayments and AI invocation.
However, it should also be noted that the growth rate of market valuation has clearly outpaced the actual usage scale—
It may be the starting point of the next "AI + Web3 bubble," or it could be the foundation of internet payments in the new era.
# 6. From 402 to the Future: Opportunities Hidden in Overlooked Corners
A status code that was forgotten for thirty years can reignite global discussions, and the underlying insight is quite realistic:
Some opportunities do not not exist; they simply need to wait for the moment when infrastructure matures and understanding is in place.
Today, technologies like AI, blockchain, and RWA are at a similar turning point.
For us, continuously learning and understanding these underlying logics is not just "following trends,"
But rather preparing for future insights—
Perhaps one day, you too can discover new business singularities from a line of old code.
💡 Conclusion:
x402 is not just a simple "payment protocol"; it reveals to us a brand new internet:
An economy composed of machines that can autonomously trade and settle in real-time.
And this may very well be the starting point for the true integration of the next generation of RWA, AI, and on-chain finance.
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