Coinbase’s Jesse Pollak says AI agents are the next big wave for crypto payments
Pollak, who will be speaking at Consensus Miami 2026 next month, also sees the open-source protocol x402 as a key part of that wave....
Key takeaways
- 1AI agents require native, programmable payment systems; crypto rails like Base and x402 protocol are positioned as core infrastructure for autonomous commerce.
- 2X402 protocol has processed approximately $48 million in payment volume, with 95% of transactions occurring on Base layer-2 network.
- 3Crypto adoption will succeed through invisible integration where users seamlessly transact on blockchain without realizing it, rather than through marketing hype.
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Why it matters
For Indian retail investors, this signals a major shift in crypto's utility from speculation to real-world AI-driven commerce infrastructure. The rapid maturation of agentic payments and protocol standardization (x402 backed by Microsoft, Google, Mastercard) indicates institutional-grade blockchain adoption is accelerating, potentially driving sustained crypto demand beyond retail trading cycles.
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