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Chainalysis: AI agents made 138 million crypto payments in a year, most of them tiny
Summary
Payments made by AI agents through Coinbase's x402 protocol jumped from about 1,500 in mid-2025 to more than 138 million by the third quarter of 2026, according to Chainalysis research reported by Decrypt and CoinDesk.
Decrypt reported that most of those payments were tiny.
CoinDesk said U.S.-linked wallets accounted for just over 88% of tracked payments for AI models, compared with a 0.1% share for China.
The figures come from Chainalysis; we haven't independently reviewed the report.
Key facts
- x402 payments grew from about 1,500 in mid-2025 to more than 138 million by Q3 2026.
- U.S.-linked wallets account for just over 88% of tracked AI model payments; China's share is 0.1%.