In recent weeks, activity in agent payments on the blockchain has seen a recovery, with the past week being the busiest of the entire year. According to the latest data from Token Terminal, during the week starting August 17th, 8.7 million x402 stablecoin transfers were made, more than double the 4.1 million recorded the previous week.
For most of the year, the weekly transaction count hovered around 2 million, dropping below 1 million in March. Growth only began in June and has persisted since. However, despite this recent uptick, the agent payments sector is still far from its historical highs of around 20.1 million transfers, set during the week of November 17, 2025. Circle's $USDC still holds a monopoly, but the chains processing the traffic have changed.
Base Version No Longer Contains the Full Chart
In November 2025, stablecoin transfers via agents were predominantly conducted on the Base network, and its structure was generally different from today's. $USDC on Base accounted for 18.7 million of the 20.1 million transfers, roughly 93% of all transfers in that category for that week. In comparison, Solana processed only 1.3 million, and Polygon barely 127,800 transfers.
The Base network still leads the sector, but its share has significantly decreased. The network saw 4.2 million transfers, constituting 48% of the market. It is followed by Solana with 3.3 million transfers (38%). Polygon and Algorand took the remaining share with 1.1 million and 109,000 transfers respectively.
Dollar Amount Did Not Change Along with the Count
If we compare the transfer volume with the number of transfers themselves, we can see how the trend of this technology's adoption is evolving. During the same week with 8.7 million transfers, players moved $367,950 worth. In terms of volume, this isn't even the highest figure for the year and certainly doesn't come close to the historical high. That record was set in November of last year when the agent transfer volume exceeded $10.017 million, of which $9.78 million came from the Base team alone.
Results as of August 17th: $191,816 on Base, $91,715 on Solana, $50,785 on Algorand, and $33,633 on Polygon.
If we calculate, the average x402 transfer value was approximately 4 cents. By Q4 2025, the average transfer value reached tens of cents.
Frequency Scales, Value Remains Unchanged
The x402 protocol is designed to handle micropayments on such a scale. It allows automatons to pay each other on-demand without using card payment systems, invoices, or intermediate subscription tiers. An average fee of 4 cents is an indicator that the protocol is working.
This also defines what this milestone measures. Millions of 4-cent transfers describe an increase in API calls from agents, not the formation of a larger blockchain economy around them. The frequency has scaled. The value of each payment has not changed.
The change in transaction structure has a different meaning. Developers building payment flows for agents are no longer defaulting to a single chain, and Solana's share growth in transfers from 6% to 38% over nine months indicates real deployment, not a single team's testing cycle.
What the Next Stage Should Look Like
None of this is in any way a critique of the x402 protocol. The protocol works exactly as advertised, and a payment system designed for transactions with a minimum amount of one cent should have high processing speed and low total transaction volume in the initial stages. The main points are low cost and high payment frequency.
This milestone is significant in itself. Activity in the agent payments sector has reached its 2026 peak, spanning more chains than ever before, and the momentum since June has remained stable.
The real prospect is to wait for the week when both lines move in sync. An increase in the number of transfers coupled with a simultaneous increase in the volume of funds will signal that agents are paying for truly valuable things, not just sending requests to endpoints. Until then, the chart shows the adoption of a mechanism, not the emergence of an economy.
