In depth analysis: why is X402 expected to dominate the "Internet payment era"? These nine tokens have quietly taken off. This article explains the X402 protocol, key projects in its ecosystem, and the current nine most popular tokens. After careful reading, you will find that the potential stocks in the X402 field are hidden within it. You must have encountered a 404 error on a webpage, right? There is actually an HTTP status code called 402: Payment Required. In the past, it had few applications, but now Coinbase has "activated" it. In the future, when a webpage needs to charge, it can directly inform you of the payment amount and which currency to use. You only need to confirm, and the system will instantly complete the transaction on the chain. The entire process takes less than 1 second and the handling fee is extremely low. What's even more impressive is that X402 is not limited to one chain, it is compatible with multiple public chains such as Base, Optimism, Solana, Sui, Polygon, Near, etc. Looking ahead to the future, it can also enable AI to exchange funds, truly ushering in the era of "Machine Economy". Nowadays, this ecosystem is thriving. From Coinbase's initial experiments to the full involvement of developers, wallets, and AI platforms, everything is accelerating. This ecological map clearly illustrates its architecture. Application layer: Heurist AI http://Snack.money 、 Questflow, Proxy402 and other projects directly integrate X402 payment mechanism. Chain layer: Base, Solana, Polygon, Avalanche, Near, Sui and other chains are fully supported. Wallet and Payment: Tools such as Coinbase, Circle, Stripe, Visa TAP, etc. ensure smooth and efficient on chain settlement. Tool layer: Crossmint, MCPay, Fluora, etc., help developers easily access X402. Identity authentication: Kite AIR, Cred Protocol, Cloudflare Compliance, etc., enhance the security of AI or user transactions. Bottom level computing power: Cloudflare, AWS, Google Cloud, Anthropic, etc. provide basic support. X402 has gone beyond the scope of simple protocols and evolved into a complete 'machine economy ecosystem'. Which projects have attracted much attention in this wave? The 9 hottest X402 concept projects PING（@pingobserver） The leading project is extremely popular. Focusing on "real-time payment on chain", the market value has reached approximately 76 million US dollars. From the perspective of 24-hour trading volume and active addresses, it can be regarded as the "representative work" of the X402 ecosystem. PayAI Network（@PayAINetwork） Build an AI autonomous payment network. Emphasizing automatic settlement between AI is the closest project in the X402 ecosystem to the ideal of a "machine economy". Daydreams Agents（@daydreamsagents） A team dedicated to the "AI proxy economy" uses X402 to enable AI to independently purchase data, computing power, and tasks. Gloria AI（@itsgloria_ai） The AI data indexing platform implements a "pay by query" model through X402, which automatically settles every time the interface is called, avoiding resource waste. Kite AI（@KiteAIChinese） Focusing on AI identity and permission verification, we will integrate with X402 in the future to enable AI accounts to independently receive and pay funds. MRDN Finance（@mrdn_finance） Developing on chain micro payment infrastructure, equivalent to X402's "settlement portal". Aurra Cloud（@AurraCloud） Provide cloud computing power services, combined with X402 to achieve "pay as you go", AI only charges once per call, no subscription required. Questflow（@questflow） Experienced AI automation platform, after connecting to X402, can automatically trigger task payment, such as instant settlement to the executor after the completion of "AI generated copy". Proxy402 The name originates from the X402 protocol and focuses on API proxy and on chain payment routing, making it easy for developers to integrate payment functions. These projects are mostly in the early stages, but from the perspective of ecological layout, AI、 Payment, data, and computing power have become mainstream directions. If the popularity continues, X402 may become the "Internet payment standard". At that time, AI, API or robot can all declare like human: "I have paid and granted permission." In a word, X402 will upgrade the Internet from "information connection" to "value connection". These projects are the pioneers of the wave of machine economy.