Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has pushed back on the idea that the rise of artificial intelligence will reduce the relevance of crypto. In a post on X on Sunday, Armstrong argued that “AI being a megatrend” does not replace crypto—if anything, it increases the need for programmable financial rails that can be used by autonomous software.
Armstrong framed his argument around “agentic finance,” describing Coinbase’s Base network alongside USDC and the company’s x402 payment protocol as key components for machine-to-machine payments. His comments also arrive as the broader crypto industry increasingly markets blockchain networks as payment infrastructure for AI agents.
Key takeaways
- Armstrong says AI agents will drive demand for programmable money, positioning crypto as more—not less—relevant.
- Coinbase’s agentic payments stack centers on Base, USDC, and x402, built for automated stablecoin transfers between applications.
- Chainalysis reported in June that agentic payments on Base via x402 surpassed 100 million transactions within about nine months of tracked activity.
- Regulators and traditional payment systems are still designed around human accounts, while x402 targets payment flows that can be triggered automatically.
Armstrong’s case: AI needs programmable payments
Armstrong’s argument is rooted in how autonomous systems are expected to operate. If AI agents can act independently—making purchases, paying for data, or settling for APIs—then they require a payment mechanism that software can initiate without relying on traditional banking checkout steps.
“AI being a megatrend takes nothing away from crypto,” Armstrong wrote on X, adding that agentic systems will instead create demand for programmable money. The underlying pitch is that blockchain-based payments are better suited to low-friction, automated interactions than systems that assume a human user completes each transaction.
How Base, x402, and USDC fit together
Armstrong’s “AiFi” framing points to a specific infrastructure stack rather than a broad concept. Base launched in 2023 as an Ethereum layer-2 network intended to improve the speed and cost of building onchain applications, with the design aimed at general-purpose use rather than solely AI payments.
In 2025, Coinbase introduced x402, a payment protocol built around the HTTP “402 Payment Required” concept. As Coinbase describes it, x402 enables automated stablecoin payments between software applications, allowing one system to pay another—such as for digital resources—without traditional account-based workflows. In practice, the protocol is intended to make it easier for autonomous agents to complete payments as part of a software interaction.
USDC is one of the stablecoins used within this ecosystem. Launched in 2018 by Circle and supported by the Coinbase-backed Centre Consortium, USDC provides the dollar-pegged unit that enables consistent value transfer for automated payments. Together, Base (execution environment), x402 (payment protocol), and USDC (payment asset) form the core of Coinbase’s current approach to agentic payments.
What Chainalysis measured on Base’s agentic payment flows
Beyond Coinbase’s product narrative, third-party analytics have begun to quantify activity. In a June report, Chainalysis said agentic payments on Base using x402 surpassed 100 million transactions within roughly nine months of activity.
According to Chainalysis, it identified agentic payment activity by tracking x402-related payment flows onchain. The firm stated that transactions worth at least $1 represented 95% of total transferred value, suggesting that the measured activity was not just tiny test transfers.
Chainalysis also reported behavioral differences between agentic payment wallets and the average Base user. It said agentic wallets were typically newer, tended to hold more asset types, and carried smaller balances than the broader user base.
Cointelegraph asked Chainalysis for updated x402 activity figures and additional details on how its methodology works, but the firm had not responded by publication time.
Separately, Cointelegraph had previously noted that agentic payment activity on Base topped 100 million transactions in June, citing the same kind of measurement that Chainalysis described.
Earnings and market attention on Coinbase’s infrastructure strategy
Armstrong’s push for “agentic finance” comes as Coinbase prepares to report second-quarter earnings on Thursday. Yahoo Finance data shows analysts’ average expectations for revenue of $1.29 billion, with sales projected to decline 13.8% compared to the same period last year. Earnings per share are expected to be flat.
While the earnings forecast does not directly measure Base or x402 usage, the timing matters: Coinbase is attempting to position its networks and payment rails as foundational plumbing for a new wave of automated transactions. For investors and builders, the key question is whether agentic payment volumes translate into sustained demand for onchain infrastructure—particularly if more AI-driven services embed payment logic as part of normal operation.
What to watch next is how quickly “agentic” payment flows evolve beyond early activity: updated figures from Chainalysis on x402 usage, whether more stablecoin-based automation moves from experimentation to production, and how clearly Coinbase can connect its infrastructure push to broader business performance. As AI agent adoption grows, the debate is likely to shift from whether crypto is “relevant” to whether crypto-based rails are practical enough to become the default mechanism for machine-initiated payments.
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