According to Coingecko, the x402 ecosystem has exploded in just three days, growing from 10 publicly traded tokens worth $178 million on October 25, 2025 to 44 coins worth a total of $832 million as of October 28.
x402 Rise of the Token
Three days ago, Bitcoin.com News reported on how Coingecko launched a new category of x402 tokens, a class of artificial intelligence (AI) digital assets tied to Coinbase’s x402 protocol. The surge in listings and valuations reflects growing enthusiasm for machine-to-machine (M2M) payments and the emerging “agency economy,” where AI systems conduct transactions autonomously.
What is x402?
x402 is an open source HTTP native payment protocol designed by Coinbase that brings back the long-defunct HTTP 402 “Payment Required” status code. This allows websites, APIs, and even AI agents to request real-time payments directly through standard web requests, without subscriptions or intermediaries. X is littered with explainer and tutorial threads discussing new trends.
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Instead of traditional paywalls and API keys, users can send instant micropayments (usually USDC) through their browser. These transactions are settled in approximately 2 seconds and there are no protocol fees. x402 works across multiple blockchains including Base, Solana, Polygon, and sei for seamless interoperability.
The x402 Foundation, co-founded by Coinbase and Cloudflare, is already sparking massive consolidation. Companies such as Google, Visa, AWS, Circle, and Anthropic are reportedly testing or adopting x402’s capabilities for AI-driven payments, highlighting its potential as a universal digital payments layer.
Coingecko’s x402 page originally listed 10 projects, but now tracks 44 projects as developers rush to take advantage of the protocol’s micropayments architecture. Combined, these equate to a market capitalization of $832 million and daily trading volume of $108 million.
Top tokens leading the ecosystem
The x402 ecosystem is led by eigencloud (EIGEN) (formerly Eigenlayer), with a price of $1.12 and a market cap of approximately $436 million, according to Coingecko’s x402 token statistics recorded on October 28, 2025 at 10:00 AM ET. Other major players include FLOCK ($0.2631), bankrcoin (BNKR) ($0.0005239), payai network (PAYAI) ($0.04806), and openserv (SERV) ($0.04618).
Further down the list are ping (PING) ($0.02332), switchboard (SWTCH) ($0.1092), adex (ADX) ($0.1171), vpay (VPAY) ($0.01507), and SANTA ($0.01466). Rounding out the top 20 are projects such as daydreams (DREAMS), opus (OPUS), avo (AVO), aurra (AURA), heurist (HEU), meridian (MRDN), homebrew robotics club (BREW), ROBA, 0xgasless (0XGAS), and alphakek.ai (AIKEK).
What x402 tokens actually do
x402 tokens are typically utility or governance assets for projects that rely on the x402 protocol. This allows AI agents, decentralized applications, or services to pay for querying, processing, or analyzing data through automated web-based transactions.
Projects like PayAI and Ping enable real-time payments for monitoring and orchestrating AI agents. Other services such as Heurist (HEU) use x402 for data queries, and Virtuals’ SANTA and AURA power networks of AI bots that perform automated on-chain tasks.
EIGEN’s adoption of x402 is tailored to the agent economy, allowing autonomous agents to work with on-chain and off-chain systems and process payments on their own, enabling razor-thin pay-as-you-go pricing that drills down to a fraction of the price, such as $0.001 per request.
Another great example. FLOCK Token plans to leverage the x402 protocol to enable AI agents and users to pay for access to fine-tuned models and federated AI services on the FLOCK API platform. You can settle payments instantly in USDC through good old HTTP.
The x402 boom reflects the growth at the intersection of artificial intelligence, blockchain, and decentralized finance (DeFi). By embedding payments directly into the web layer, x402 enables digital entities to transact autonomously, facilitating the transition to frictionless AI-to-AI commerce.
Regardless of whether x402 becomes the new financial backbone for autonomous systems or just the latest cryptocurrency trend, x402’s rapid expansion in both listing and total capitalization shows that investors are paying attention. As AI and web protocols converge, the age of “pay-to-play” may finally be here.
Frequently asked questions 🤖
- What is x402 token?The x402 token is a utility and governance coin built on Coinbase’s x402 protocol that enables instant micropayments across the web and AI ecosystems.
- How big is the x402 market?As of October 28, 2025, Coingecko has listed 44 tokens with a total market capitalization of $832 million.
- Who is behind x402?The x402 Foundation, co-founded by Coinbase and Cloudflare, is leading the development of the protocol with integrations with major companies.
- Why are x402 tokens important?These enable real-time, low-cost payments between AI agents, data providers, and users, driving the emerging “agent economy.”
