AI Agents Could Outspend Humans, Creating Economy Larger Than Human Commerce

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AI agents could outspend humans, Coinbase CEO says

According to Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, artificial intelligence agents have the potential to generate an economic system even bigger than what humans currently create, particularly as payments between machines increasingly use cryptocurrency technology.

Summary

  • Brian Armstrong says machine-to-machine payments could lift demand for digital dollars beyond current estimates.
  • x402 recorded 75.41 million transactions and $24.24 million volume over the last 30 days.
  • Base and USDC remain central to Coinbase’s plan for AI agent payments and commerce.

In a recent post on X, Armstrong suggested that the potential of agentic commerce hasn’t been fully reflected in market prices. He believes that payments between machines could significantly boost the demand for digital dollars, potentially exceeding current expectations. He also stated that the agentic economy – where autonomous agents conduct commerce – could ultimately become larger than the traditional human economy.

This announcement follows Coinbase’s ongoing efforts to integrate AI into payments. They’re developing tools that allow software programs to automatically pay for things like APIs, data, and cloud services, without requiring a person to approve each payment.

As a crypto investor, I’ve been paying attention to Coinbase’s moves, and their focus on stablecoins makes a lot of sense. They’ve explained that AI is going to need really fast, reliable payments, and that’s where stablecoins come in. Coinbase specifically highlighted that USDC and their Base blockchain are handling the bulk of these on-chain transactions for AI agents – basically, they’re positioning themselves to be a key part of the infrastructure powering AI payments.

The company reported that its AI agents primarily use USDC for payments – in 99% of transactions – and operate largely on the Base network, with over 90% running there. These agents are currently being utilized for a variety of functions, including trading, artificial intelligence tasks, processing data, creating media, storing information, and more.

x402 and Base lead USDC agent payments

x402 is a new payment system that lets websites and apps request payments using a standard web response. It allows users and automated programs to pay for access to services instantly, without needing to create accounts or manage API keys.

As a crypto investor, I’ve been keeping a close eye on x402, and the recent numbers look pretty solid. Over the past month, there were over 75 million transactions, totaling around $24 million in trading volume. It’s also encouraging to see a strong community building, with over 94,000 unique buyers and around 22,000 sellers actively using the platform.

According to crypto.news, Coinbase’s Agentic.market is a platform where AI programs can find and purchase services with USDC through a system called x402. When it became available, the platform had already processed around 165 million transactions.

According to the report, Base processed 85% of the 165 million x402 transactions. This gives Coinbase a leading role in the emerging market for agent payments, which prioritizes low costs and quick processing times.

AWS and Google Cloud expand agent payment rails

Big tech companies are experimenting with ways for AI agents to make payments. Amazon Web Services (AWS) has started a preview program called Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Payments, developed with Coinbase and Stripe, which allows agents to send small payments using stablecoins through a system called x402.

AWS announced that AgentCore Payments allows agents to easily process payments, manage wallets, set spending limits, and track all transactions. Coinbase created the technology behind these payments (x402) and provides the wallet system used in the initial testing phase.

Stripe is now also offering services in the crypto payment space. As crypto.news previously reported, they introduced x402 payments on the Base network, enabling AI programs to use USDC to pay for things like APIs, data, and computing power.

Google Cloud and Solana are collaborating on a new system called Pay.sh. According to crypto.news, Pay.sh allows AI programs to use Google’s Gemini, BigQuery, and Vertex AI services by making payments with stablecoins on the Solana blockchain.

AI agent economy puts USDC demand in focus

The competition to enable payments for AI is increasingly focused on stablecoins. Because AI agents will likely need to make many small payments for things like data and processing power, demand could grow for quick and reliable digital currencies backed by the U.S. dollar.

Armstrong believes AI programs will require financial infrastructure designed for the internet. Coinbase is working to provide this infrastructure with tools like USDC, Base, x402, and Agentic.market.

The market for this technology is still developing, with many systems still being tested or only available to a small group of users. However, the increasing number of transactions indicates that payments to agents are actually being implemented and used in real-world scenarios.

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2026-05-19 14:00