Base MCP, The Next Step for x402

marsbitPublicado a 2026-05-28Actualizado a 2026-05-28

Resumen

Base has officially launched Base MCP, allowing users to connect their Base Account to AI Agents to perform actions like swaps, transfers, portfolio tracking, and transaction history queries through conversational commands. This move aligns with Base's strategic focus on AI, driven by the broader competition in the emerging Agent-to-Agent payment sector. The evolution of Agent payments has accelerated. In late 2024, the primary method involved insecure browser automation. By 2025, solutions like Coinbase's x402 (providing crypto wallets for Agents), Google's AP2, and Visa's token-based system emerged. x402 has since processed 176 million transactions totaling over $70 million, with a median value between $0.01 and $0.10. Stablecoins, particularly USDC, dominate these settlements due to their negligible transaction costs compared to traditional payment fees, which are prohibitive for micro-payments. Coinbase faces competition from Stripe, which has built a comparable infrastructure for Agent payments with its Tempo blockchain, Privy wallets, Bridge routing (acquired for $1.1B), and the recently launched MPP protocol. Both companies are now competing at the application layer. The core reason AI is central to Base's strategy is to expand the scenarios for Agent payments, ensuring more transactions occur on its network. By securing a dominant position and scale advantage in this nascent field, Coinbase aims to capture the future commercial potential of Agent-driven payments. T...

Yesterday, Base officially launched Base MCP. By connecting Base Account to AI Agent through Base MCP, you can use colloquial language, like chatting, to have the Agent perform operations such as Swap, transfers, position tracking, and transaction history queries.

Players familiar with Base know that the main focus on the Base chain right now is AI, so such an update from Base doesn't come as a surprise. Some players even anticipate new gameplay on the Base chain, similar to the AI meme coin $SHIT on Ethereum before, where they could directly use Base MCP to let an Agent participate in chain-based token launches through chat.

But if we step back from the perspective of a chain degen and look at the competition in Agent-to-Agent payments, we might find a new answer as to why AI has become the main focus for Base.

Rapidly Developing Agent Payments

Let's rewind to September 2024. Back then, if you wanted an AI Agent to complete a payment for something, humans basically had only one choice: use browser automation tools (like headless browsers such as Playwright, Selenium) to let the AI Agent simulate human actions and complete the checkout process on a webpage.

Since this required providing payment credentials (like full credit/debit card numbers, CVV, expiration dates, etc.) to the AI Agent, this sole option was not secure.

By May 2025, Coinbase launched x402, providing an AI Agent with a crypto wallet and solving this problem in a crypto-native way. But Coinbase wasn't the only one to recognize this as a potential market, and the solutions weren't limited to just crypto-native ones. In 2025, Google launched AP2, allowing users to authorize spending permissions to an Agent. Visa expanded its existing card payment channels, launching Visa Intelligent Commerce, which doesn't give the Agent sensitive information like credit card numbers or CVV, but instead provides the Agent with specific, limited tokens to complete payments.

Today, x402 has processed 176 million transactions from AI Agents, with a total transaction volume exceeding $70 million. This amount might not seem huge, but neither Coinbase nor the traditional giants are taking this emerging payment competition lightly:

- On January 22, 2026, Capital One, the sixth-largest bank in the US with $470 billion in assets, $330 billion in deposits, and the third-largest credit card issuer in the nation, announced the acquisition of Brex for $5.15 billion to enhance AI payment capabilities.

- In March 2026, Mastercard acquired the stablecoin infrastructure company BVNK for $1.8 billion.

- In February 2025, Stripe acquired the stablecoin payment platform Bridge for $1.1 billion.

While they haven't explicitly stated it, acquiring stablecoin-related companies is likely a move to prepare for the upcoming era of Agent payments. Stablecoins are indeed crucial for Agent payments.

Why Are Stablecoins Important for Agent Payments?

According to data statistics from Keyrock, the median transaction amount for Agent transactions processed on x402 so far is between $0.01 and $0.10, with 76% of transactions being under $0.30.

$0.30 is the most common flat fee per transaction in the US and many major markets. This fee is like a wall, making micropayments under $1 very uneconomical. For example, for a 3-cent API call, a $0.30 fee is 10 times the call cost; if an Agent pays with a credit card, the cumulative cost would be prohibitively high.

Blockchain solves this problem well. On Base, the transaction settlement cost is $0.0001. With this immense advantage, stablecoins have almost naturally won the competition against traditional payment giants in the realm of Agent payments.

Of the 176 million Agent transactions processed by x402, 98.6% were settled in USDC. Given the close relationship between Coinbase and Circle, it's fair to say Coinbase is also a big winner at the settlement layer.

But the settlement layer is just one layer in Agent payments. In the track of solving Agent payments via crypto-native means, Coinbase has a competitor—Stripe.

The Challenge from Stripe

This March, Stripe launched the Agent Payment Protocol MPP, which has brought Stripe's architecture map for Agent payments almost on par with Coinbase's.

- From the settlement layer: Coinbase has Base, Stripe has Tempo.

- From the wallet layer: Coinbase has Agent Wallet, Stripe has Privy.

- From the routing layer: Coinbase has built-in routing facilities, Stripe has Bridge, acquired for $1.1 billion.

- From the payment protocol: Coinbase has x402, Stripe has MPP.

Now let's return to the Base MCP mentioned at the beginning of the article. Since both competing sides now have these four layers of supporting infrastructure, the next battlefront is naturally the application layer.

This is the core reason why AI can become Base's main focus—Base needs to ensure that AI (at least in the cryptocurrency space) happens on Base. This is not actually about providing a perspective for degens on the Base chain, but about broadening the scenarios for Agent payments, enabling more Agents to conduct more transactions for more applications, thereby securing its leading position in the Agent payment track.

Once a dominant scale advantage is established, when Agent payments enter the commercial domain in the future, Coinbase stands to win even bigger.

Looking at the launch of Base MCP from this angle, one can sense that this is just a small step in Coinbase's grand ambition.

Preguntas relacionadas

QWhat is Base MCP and what key functionality does it enable for AI Agents?

ABase MCP is a protocol recently launched by Base. It allows users to connect their Base Account to an AI Agent. Once connected, users can use natural, conversational language to instruct the Agent to perform actions such as executing token swaps, making transfers, tracking portfolio positions, and querying transaction history.

QAccording to the article, why are stablecoins considered crucial for Agent payments?

AStablecoins are crucial for Agent payments because they enable micro-transactions economically. Traditional payment methods often have fixed fees around $0.30 per transaction, which makes small payments (e.g., a few cents for an API call) prohibitively expensive. In contrast, settlement costs on Base are around $0.0001, allowing stablecoins like USDC to facilitate vast numbers of small-value transactions efficiently, as evidenced by 98.6% of x402 transactions being settled in USDC.

QHow does the article contrast Coinbase's and Stripe's approaches to the Agent payment infrastructure?

AThe article contrasts their approaches by outlining the similar four-layer infrastructure both companies have built: Settlement Layer (Coinbase has Base, Stripe has Tempo), Wallet Layer (Coinbase has Agent Wallet, Stripe has Privy), Routing Layer (Coinbase has internal routing, Stripe acquired Bridge), and Payment Protocol Layer (Coinbase has x402, Stripe has MPP). This positions them as direct competitors in the Agent payment space.

QWhat strategic reason does the article suggest is behind Base making AI its main narrative?

AThe article suggests that Base's strategic focus on AI is not primarily for on-chain 'degen' activities but to expand the scenarios for Agent payments. By ensuring more AI activity (at least in the crypto space) happens on Base, Coinbase aims to generate more Agent-driven transactions across more applications. This builds a dominant scale advantage, securing Coinbase's leading position in the emerging Agent payment competition for future commercial applications.

QWhat does the median transaction amount on x402 indicate about the nature of Agent payments?

AThe median transaction amount on x402 falls between $0.01 and $0.10, with 76% of transactions being under $0.30. This data indicates that Agent payments are predominantly micro-transactions, involving very small sums of money per transaction.

Lecturas Relacionadas

Blocked Its Own Treasure, WeChat AI Steps Up

Tencent's stock surged over 10% on June 2nd amid reports that WeChat, with 1.43 billion monthly users, is finalizing tests for a native AI Agent. The reported feature, accessible by swiping right from the main interface, allows users to issue commands in natural language. The AI then decomposes tasks and automatically calls upon relevant Mini Programs within WeChat to complete actions like ordering food, booking tickets, or making payments, creating a closed-loop service execution system. This strategic shift follows the internal conflict and subsequent "blocking" of Tencent's standalone AI app, Yuanbao, by WeChat for violating sharing rules during a 2026 Spring Festival promotion. The incident highlighted a lack of internal consensus and exposed the weakness of competing in the standalone AI assistant arena against rivals like ByteDance's Doubao (345M MAU) and Alibaba's Qianwen. The new WeChat AI Agent aims to leverage WeChat's unique assets—its massive user base, standardized Mini Program APIs, WeChat Pay, and identity system—to move from simple content generation to actual task execution. Analysts note this changes the competitive landscape from model benchmarks to which AI can connect to more real-world services. However, success depends on key variables: the capability of Tencent's underlying Hunyuan model, managing massive inference costs, and redesigning incentives for Mini Program developers whose traffic might be bypassed. The move is seen as an attempt to keep user service intent within WeChat's ecosystem as AI begins to redefine how users access services.

marsbitHace 32 min(s)

Blocked Its Own Treasure, WeChat AI Steps Up

marsbitHace 32 min(s)

ByteDance Adopts Arm CPUs, Jensen Huang: So Sad I Didn't Buy Arm

**Summary:** At Computex 2026, Arm CEO Rene Haas announced that ByteDance and Oracle have adopted Arm's self-designed Arm AGI data center CPU. The company expects significant revenue growth from this product, projecting $20 billion in demand for the 2027/2028 fiscal years. Haas noted that restricting AI-capable CPUs from the US to China is nearly impossible due to their widespread applications. Arm's stock has surged dramatically this year, notably rising 16% after NVIDIA's Arm-based Vera CPU and RTX Spark announcements. A highlight was the informal, humorous on-stage conversation between Haas and NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang. Huang joked about NVIDIA's failed attempt to acquire Arm and playfully lamented selling his Arm shares. Both executives showed a clear sense of camaraderie and shared regret over the missed merger. Key technical topics were discussed: 1. **AI PC Design:** Huang explained NVIDIA's RTX Spark superchip (with a 20-core Arm CPU) is designed for future AI agents that will autonomously run and use tools on PCs, blending local and cloud processing. 2. **Agent vs. OS:** Huang emphasized the operating system remains crucial, as AI agents rely on its APIs and tools to function. 3. **Growth Constraints:** He identified the shift to "useful AI" that generates profitable tokens as a primary driver for immense, almost limitless, computational demand. Haas outlined Arm's strategy across PC and data centers. For PCs, Arm collaborates with partners like NVIDIA and MediaTek, offering its compute subsystem (CSS) for custom SoCs. In data centers, its Arm AGI CPU (built on TSMC's 3nm process) has gained major partners including OpenAI, Meta, and now ByteDance and Oracle. Arm presented a multi-year roadmap for its in-house CPU line. The article concludes that while GPUs dominated the AI training race, the explosion of AI agents is shifting significant focus to CPUs for inference, state management, and tool orchestration. The industry is trending towards vertical integration, with companies like cloud providers designing chips and chip/IP firms offering full solutions, all competing to deliver more efficient computing per watt.

marsbitHace 52 min(s)

ByteDance Adopts Arm CPUs, Jensen Huang: So Sad I Didn't Buy Arm

marsbitHace 52 min(s)

New Wall Street Play: Yen Shorts Still Adding, But Japan Stocks Don't Rely on Carry Trade Unwinding

On June 3rd, USD/JPY hit 160.44, its highest level since July 2024, while the Nikkei 225 surged past 68,000 points. Contrary to popular narratives of an imminent "carry trade unwind" akin to August 2024, data reveals a more complex picture. Speculative net short positions in yen futures have actually increased, reaching -114,667 contracts by late May, suggesting traders are doubling down rather than retreating. Meanwhile, Japan's Finance Ministry conducted its largest-ever single-round FX intervention (11.73 trillion yen) in April-May but failed to hold the 160 yen line. The Nikkei's rally is not driven by carry trade dynamics. Foreign investors are aggressively buying Japanese stocks, with net purchases in 2026 running nearly 16 times higher than 2025 levels. This inflow is concentrated in AI and semiconductor-related stocks like SoftBank and Socionext, fueled by positive sector outlooks, rather than being a flight from unwinding yen shorts. Furthermore, the Nikkei has continued climbing despite the Bank of Japan's (BOJ) rate hikes to 0.75%. This disconnect exists because the current equity boom is fueled by AI-driven foreign investment, not reliant on cheap yen funding. However, this relationship remains fragile. Should the BOJ hike rates further (e.g., to 1.0%) while dollar weakness increases carry trade costs, the trajectories of the yen and Japanese stocks could reconverge, potentially triggering volatility.

marsbitHace 57 min(s)

New Wall Street Play: Yen Shorts Still Adding, But Japan Stocks Don't Rely on Carry Trade Unwinding

marsbitHace 57 min(s)

Broadcom's Q3 Guidance Misses Expectations by $12 Billion, After-Hours Trading Plummets Over 13%, AI Narrative "Cooling"?

On June 3, Broadcom released record Q2 FY26 results with revenue of $22.19B, up 48% YoY, and AI chip sales of $10.8B, up 143%. Adjusted EPS of $2.44 beat estimates. However, its Q3 AI semiconductor revenue guidance of $16B, while up over 200% YoY, fell roughly $1.2B (7%) short of analyst consensus expectations of $17.2B. This miss, coupled with slightly weaker-than-expected software revenue, triggered a severe market reaction. CEO Hock Tan maintained the FY26 AI revenue outlook of over $100B but did not raise it, disappointing investors who had priced in more robust growth. The stock plummeted over 13% in after-hours trading, erasing roughly $270B in market cap. The sell-off extended to peers like Marvell. A key concern for markets, particularly for Chinese optical module suppliers, was Tan's comment that the contribution of AI networking (e.g., Ethernet switches, optical interconnect chips) to AI revenue, currently near 40%, is expected to normalize to around 30% over time, signaling a potential peak in growth for that segment. Despite the guidance shortfall, Tan reiterated that AI demand remains "insatiable" and reaffirmed the long-term target of exceeding $100B in AI revenue by FY27. The reaction highlights the heightened sensitivity and premium valuation placed on AI-exposed stocks, where anything less than stellar guidance can prompt significant profit-taking. The broader question is whether this represents a cooling AI narrative or a correction in overstretched valuations.

marsbitHace 57 min(s)

Broadcom's Q3 Guidance Misses Expectations by $12 Billion, After-Hours Trading Plummets Over 13%, AI Narrative "Cooling"?

marsbitHace 57 min(s)

Dogecoin Price Just Entered A Critical Level, But Analyst Says It’s Not Time To Buy

Dogecoin has returned to a major long-term level on its monthly chart, entering what analyst Trader Tardigrade identifies as a critical resistance zone. Historically, this zone within a massive descending broadening channel has seen only two visits in the past decade—in 2017 and 2020—each followed by a strong rejection and deep correction. The coin has already dropped 8% after testing this area. Crucially, the analyst's chart is inverted; the "resistance" line is actually a bullish support line on a normal price chart. Past rejections from this line preceded major rallies. Therefore, the current price action near $0.0937 is viewed as a return to support, with potential for an upward bounce. A move above $0.10 could signal improving sentiment, while a break above $0.25 would confirm a bounce from support. The inverted chart structure even suggests room for significant upside toward double-digit targets.

bitcoinistHace 1 hora(s)

Dogecoin Price Just Entered A Critical Level, But Analyst Says It’s Not Time To Buy

bitcoinistHace 1 hora(s)

Trading

Spot

Futuros