Forecast Trend Report by Period
The spread of artificial intelligence agents is poised to boost demand for cryptocurrency payment infrastructure, with adoption expected to accelerate through "invisible integration" that lets payments operate without users noticing them.
Coinbase executive Jesse Pollak told CoinDesk in an interview published April 25 that as AI agents rapidly gain autonomy, there is a growing need for systems that allow them to make payments on their own.
"Agents are defined and operated by software, so money also needs to exist in software form," Pollak said. Crypto-based payments are the infrastructure best suited to that need, he added.
That shift is giving rise to agent-based payments, in which AI systems independently purchase services such as data access, computing resources and travel bookings.
Pollak identified the open-source payment protocol x402 as a key technology. It is designed to enable payments through API calls alone, without subscriptions or traditional payment systems.
Payments processed through x402 have totaled about $48 million so far, with roughly 95% of the volume handled on Base, the Ethereum layer-2 network. Integration is expanding across AI services, data platforms and travel services.
Over the longer term, Pollak said he expects an open marketplace to emerge where agents discover and purchase services without human involvement. That would allow software to find and use services in real time.
In the near term, however, the combination of humans and AI will be the main driver of change, he said. Users with stronger performance are already using AI agents to further improve productivity.
Pollak also addressed how crypto adoption could unfold. It will spread in a form that users adopt naturally without needing an explanation, he said, with the key being for crypto to become invisible infrastructure that users do not notice.
Minseung Kang
minriver@bloomingbit.ioBlockchain journalist | Writer of Trade Now & Altcoin Now, must-read content for investors.
