I just looked it up, and currently x402 has processed a total of 50 million transactions, with an average transaction value of $0.20, and the median directly at $0.01.

These data indicate that x402 is thriving as the foundation of the agent payment economy, and small amounts are becoming the main force of its payments.
It is foreseeable that in the future, the x402 protocol will become a globally applicable payment standard designed specifically for machines.
However, under a unified standard, some variants have also emerged, such as the x402 protocol of GOAT Network.
Which is stronger or weaker? The community has its own debates.
But in my view, it’s not necessarily a competition, but rather different choices under different backgrounds.
Coinbase is like offering a “fast-food” boundary service, while GOAT Network provides a refined, memorable dinner.
I made a simple chart to illustrate the differences:
This table mainly shows that
1. Although Coinbase’s solution can greatly lower the entry barrier, it is essentially a “trust black box.” Developers must trust that Coinbase will not go offline, will not censor, and can always remain correct.
What everyone is doing is decentralization, and clearly, thorough decentralization is the best choice.
Just like the recent DeFi revolution centered on centralized finance, and the NFT revolution in traditional collectibles markets,
Payments should also undergo a complete revolution.
2. It’s also obvious that Coinbase focuses more on “payment itself,” while GOAT Network introduces the ERC8004 protocol.
Actually, I have a question here: the inventor of ERC8004 is also the inventor of the x402 protocol. Why not adopt it?
I strongly agree with a viewpoint: AI agents are not just an address or a symbol, but autonomous, self-aware, emotionally capable “robots” with credibility.
Since they are “people,” naturally there are bad actors and good actors. Providing them with a unique identity via the ERC8004 protocol to determine whether they are allowed to perform payment operations is very important.
Similarly, it’s like Alipay’s Sesame Credit 🐶.
3. It’s actually a well-worn topic: previously, it was about achieving large-scale adoption of Web3 in the human world; now, it’s about achieving large-scale adoption of Web3 in the agent world.
The key is to meet the practical needs of multi-chain payments, low-threshold usage, and autonomous path selection.
GOAT Network makes “acceptable payment methods” extremely flexible through its routing layer, laying the foundation for agents to choose encrypted payments instead of traditional ones.
4. As a crypto OG, there’s no doubt that in any scenario, facing anyone, BTC remains the top choice, and agents are no exception.
Cases like the collapse of Web3 giants FTX, Luna, etc., have fully demonstrated the risks of centralization and single choices.
For over a decade, only BTC has remained consistent, and GOAT Network aligns with Bitcoin through BitVM2, providing users with a trustworthy withdrawal path and final settlement rights, which is far superior in trust hierarchy to general execution network settlements.
🆚 Like
Coinbase x402 is like a “highway toll booth”—convenient but gatekept, suitable for small applications that pursue speed and convenience.
GOAT is like an “intelligent highway network”—autonomous, efficient, durable. But if building a global, decentralized agent business network, the trust-minimized, persistent identity, and Bitcoin-secured stack offered by GOAT Network is undoubtedly a more robust and scalable choice.
What’s visible is that Coinbase’s x402 protocol is also continuously iterating and optimizing. Who will become the underlying payment king for AI agents still needs time to prove.
It’s better to leave the choice to the agents themselves, trusting they will make the best decision 🐶
#AIAGENT #BTCL2 #GOATED