AWS and Coinbase Unleash AI-Powered Payments for Web Publishers

Crypto exchange Coinbase and Amazon Web Services (AWS) have integrated the x402 protocol into CloudFront and WAF, enabling web publishers and API providers to accept payments from AI agents.

The solution, which could reach a quarter of the internet, allows for monetizing traffic from AI agents through various payment models, including pay-per-request, bundled micropayments, subscriptions, and usage-based billing.

The first supported currency is the USDC stablecoin on the Base network, but the protocol is designed to support other blockchains, digital assets, and traditional payment systems in the future.

Coinbase has handed over the x402 protocol to the Linux Foundation as an open standard. The foundation's founding members include AWS and more than twenty companies from the cloud technology, artificial intelligence, and financial services sectors.