AI agents are on a shopping spree: Total payments on Base blockchain eclipse 138 million, Chainalysis finds
The field of agentic commerce, which describes the use of AI agents to carry out Internet transactions, is rapidly maturing, and crypto is fueling the boom. That’s according to a new report by the blockchain analytics platform Chainalysis, which found developers are increasingly giving AI agents their own budgets to buy the computing power, live web data, and code tools they need to complete tasks.
TL;DR
- Agentic commerce, the use of AI agents for internet transactions, is growing rapidly, fueled by cryptocurrency.
- Payments on the Base blockchain through the x402 protocol surged from 1,500 in mid-2025 to over 138 million by Q3 2026.
- AI agents are given cryptocurrency allowances to autonomously pay for services like computing power, data, and tools.
- Over 87% of these payments are less than 10 cents, making blockchains more cost-effective than credit cards for small transactions.
- Coinbase and Cloudflare are key players, with the x402 protocol's foundation expanding to include major companies like Visa and Mastercard.
- AI agents are spending funds much faster, with the time between receiving funds and making a payment decreasing significantly.
- Repeat funding of AI agent wallets is increasing, indicating ongoing tasks rather than one-off experiments.
- The trend towards agentic commerce is expected to be exponential due to network effects.