Coinbase makes a major push into the AI agent payment field

Cryptocurrency exchanges are competing for a major partnership with Cloudflare, planning to issue stablecoins that could become the core payment method for AI proxy network traffic.

Coinbase Makes a Major Push into AI Proxy Payments

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is accelerating the development of infrastructure to support AI autonomous payments, aiming to seize the opportunity in this emerging market, which could become a new battleground for payment providers.

According to insiders, Coinbase is competing with crypto infrastructure startup Zerohash and others for the opportunity to issue a new stablecoin for Cloudflare, with plans to launch this stablecoin later this year. Given Cloudflare’s central role in internet traffic and cybersecurity, the winning stablecoin could become the primary payment medium for AI proxy network traffic.

Amidst the overall market downturn affecting core crypto brokerage business, Coinbase is shifting its focus to AI proxy payments. The company is also developing AI agents capable of executing cryptocurrency trades, as well as trading marketplaces and wallet products tailored for AI proxies.

Coinbase Chief Business Officer Shan Aggarwal said of the proxy payment business: “This is undoubtedly one of the company’s top strategic priorities.”

The revenue model from AI proxies differs from that of regular user services. Aggarwal explained: “We mainly monetize by providing infrastructure for proxies.”

Coinbase predicts that in the future, people will heavily use AI proxies to complete various tasks, and these proxies will need payment capabilities. The company hopes AI proxies will use USDC stablecoins on the Base blockchain, both of which can generate revenue for Coinbase.

Currently, the scale of AI proxy-related business remains small, especially on the individual user side, but it has already attracted significant investor attention. Market concerns include the potential disruption to traditional card payment systems by crypto-powered AI proxies, leading to declines in Visa and Mastercard stock prices.

As Coinbase expands into payments, its stock price has fallen due to the ongoing crypto winter, and the company is actively diversifying its business. Last month, trading volume across the entire industry dropped to its lowest since October 2024. Coinbase’s stock price has halved from its 2025 peak, with a quarterly loss of $667 million. The company has expanded into stock trading and prediction markets to offset declines in crypto trading.

For years, Coinbase has promoted the use of cryptocurrencies for payments but has struggled to achieve widespread adoption. Now, with the support of OpenAI, Anthropic, and the viral rise of personal AI assistants like OpenClaw this year, the emergence of AI proxies offers new opportunities for crypto to penetrate real-world payment scenarios.

Cloudflare Chief Strategy Officer Stephanie Cohen said:

“Fundamentally, the internet traffic pattern has changed — proxy and bot traffic are increasing. The internet may need entirely new payment capabilities.”

Both Cloudflare and Coinbase declined to comment on potential collaborations to issue stablecoins.

Coinbase plans to limit the autonomy of proxies by setting spending limits and restricting payment channels. Cohen noted: “When you let proxies perform tasks, there’s always concern they might not act as expected.”

The core of Coinbase’s approach is its payment protocol x402, developed last year, which allows websites to easily accept payments from AI proxies. Although current transaction volume is modest, this protocol has become the foundation for AI proxy crypto payments.

However, competition has arrived. Stripe announced on Wednesday that it will partner with emerging stablecoin blockchain Tempo to launch a payment protocol for AI proxies. Stripe already serves many merchants and AI companies, giving it a natural advantage in the proxy payment space.

Coinbase’s protocol has seen initial success among developers, with proxies using it to access network data and content (such as tweets and articles). According to data from the AI proxy service site x402scan.com, some transactions on Coinbase x402 involve real-time crypto market data payments or services like scraping LinkedIn profiles for sales leads.

For small payments typically handled by AI proxies, cryptocurrencies are cheaper due to lower transaction fees compared to credit cards. Data platform Artemis reports that the average transaction amount on Coinbase x402 is about 31 cents.

Since its launch in October last year, Coinbase estimates that total real activity payments on the x402 protocol have reached approximately $33.7 million. In comparison, Coinbase’s crypto trading volume in the past 24 hours alone was $2 billion, indicating the scale is still limited. Coinbase does not charge directly for protocol transactions but profits by enabling proxies to use its wallets, blockchain, and USDC stablecoins.

Data shows that about 99% of AI proxy crypto payments on Coinbase use Circle’s USDC, and roughly 93% of real transactions occur on Coinbase’s Base blockchain.

Circle Chief Strategy Officer Dante Disparte stated that the crypto industry has advantages over credit cards and bank transfers because traditional financial systems are closed and costly to comply with, making them less suitable for AI proxies.

Currently, Visa and Mastercard allow AI proxies to use their cards, and companies like Ramp are offering virtual cards for AI proxies.