Key Points
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x402, a payments protocol for AI agents, has seen significant growth over the last year.
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Base and Solana are the most common transaction settlement layers, and only Solana has an investable crypto token.
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Solana is also a natural fit for AI agent payments due to its speed, low transaction fees, and large stablecoin supply.
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The idea of machines paying machines has gone from science fiction to reality. A total of 138.5 million payments have been made on Base using x402, a payment protocol built for AI agents, according to an Oct. 14 report by Chainalysis. That’s up from 58,800 total transactions as of Q3 2025.
AI agent payments look like the next big growth driver in the crypto market, and Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) is one of the crypto investments best positioned to benefit.
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How x402 enables AI agent payments
First, it’s worth quickly explaining x402. Developed by Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN), x402 is a payment protocol that uses the web’s “402 Payment Required” code to attach payment terms to a protected digital resource, such as an API call or a paywalled article. An AI agent can sign a cryptographic payment authorization and send payment to receive the resource.
Transactions are typically very small, with Chainalysis reporting that over 87% were between $0.0001 and $0.10. These kinds of transactions are too small to be worthwhile for traditional payment networks, such as Visa and Mastercard, due to processing fees and the risk of chargebacks. Many cryptocurrencies, on the other hand, have much smaller processing fees and no chargeback risk.
While x402 supports more than a dozen blockchains, most agent payment volume settles on Base, Solana, or Polygon. Polygon is a distant third compared to Base and Solana, and with that in mind, narrowing down investment options is fairly simple.
Solana is establishing itself as the blockchain of choice for agent payments
Base, an Ethereum Layer-2 blockchain built by Coinbase, currently leads in cumulative settled transactions and payment volume on x402. However, Base doesn’t have a crypto token you can invest in.
Solana ranks second in transaction and payment volumes, and its appeal goes beyond the fact that Base lacks a token. It has overtaken Base in daily activity at several points this year, establishing itself as a serious competitor.
As one of the fastest blockchains, Solana is practically tailor-made for small AI agent payments. It has extremely low crypto transaction fees costing just a fraction of a cent, and its recent Alpenglow upgrade, which went live on Oct. 21, targets transaction finality times of 150 milliseconds.
To facilitate AI agent payments, Solana has also launched batch settlement on x402 through PayAI Network and BlockRunAI. AI agents may need to make many transactions, and batch settlement allows them to bundle these payments into a single on-chain settlement. BlockRunAI reports that batch settlement saves more than $20,000 a month in fees and has 10 times lower latency.
The caveat is that these AI agent transactions aren’t yet driving much economic activity. TRM Labs tallied 198.9 million x402 settlements since March 2025, totaling $52.7 million across Base, Solana, and Polygon. After removing suspicious activity, about $25.6 million appeared to be a plausible transaction amount. A separate 35-day sample found that 90.8% of x402 transactions were worth less than $0.01.
Why Solana is the AI payments play to watch
Right now, AI agent transaction counts are far ahead of revenue. Solana isn’t making a ton of money from agent transactions, but the blockchain is building the infrastructure to position itself for success as these payments grow. It also has an ample supply of stablecoins that AI agents spend. Stablecoin supply on Solana hit a record $17.3 billion in September, and daily active stablecoin addresses reached 888,000, up 269% from a year earlier.
Solana is trading about 64% below its all-time high of $293, set in January 2025. For long-term crypto investors who can handle the volatility, this could be an opportunity to get in early on a blockchain that takes off if AI agent payments grow as expected.
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Lyle Daly has positions in Solana. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Mastercard, Solana, and Visa. The Motley Fool recommends Coinbase Global and POL (ex-MATIC). The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
