AI Agents Were Supposed to Power a New Economy on Blockchain —What Went Wrong
x402 agent payment transactions have plummeted over 92% since their peak, signaling current demand lags behind infrastructure development.Summary
The x402 standard, intended to enable automated on-chain payments for AI agents and power a new Agent Economy on the blockchain, is experiencing a severe downturn. Data from Artemis shows daily x402 transactions dropped by over 92% from a peak of 731,000 in December 2025 to about 57,000 by February 2026 across networks like Base, Polygon PoS, and Solana. The primary cause identified is a sharp contraction in the "Infrastructure & Utilities" segment, with key services seeing activity fall by more than 80%, suggesting that while the tools are being built, the actual demand has not yet materialized. Despite this immediate slump, analysts remain optimistic about the long-term vision of autonomous AI economic entities, citing strong community interest in frameworks like OpenClaw, the growth of agent social networks like Moltbook, and the development of new standards like ERC-8004. However, current investment performance in the x402 ecosystem is weak, largely overshadowed by Chainlink's market cap, with broad market fear contributing to the neglect of positive underlying fundamentals.
(Source：BeInCrypto)