Coinbase Business launches AI agent payments stack after first year

Coinbase has opened Coinbase Business to payments from AI agents, letting merchants already using the platform accept bot-initiated transactions through Coinbase Payments and the x402 open internet payments standard without extra setup. The rollout, announced July 23, extends the company’s push into machine-to-machine commerce and comes a year after Coinbase Business formally launched in June 2025. The company said Coinbase Business signed up approximately 5,000 customers in its first year, processed roughly $1 billion in combined payments and trading volume, and grew to about 12 employees. Early usage of the new payment rail has centered on digital infrastructure, with bots buying Open Router credits, domain names, and cloud storage from Amazon and Google. Coinbase also said around 53% of web traffic to Base documentation came from agentic visitors starting in June, a sign it sees of growing autonomous software activity online. Coinbase said the x402-based flow allows an agent to discover documentation, create and fund a wallet, pay a merchant enrolled in Coinbase Business, and settle on Base or another supported chain in USD Coin. The company also announced Coinbase for Agents, which lets users connect their own AI configurations to trading and investment workflows, and released a software development kit meant to help third-party developers add x402 payment support to outside services. Coinbase previously announced Coinbase Advisor, a Securities and Exchange Commission-registered AI system for personalized investment advice.