The Cardano network has begun integrating the x402 payment standard, which should allow autonomous artificial intelligence (AI) agents to conduct transactions on the blockchain without human intervention. This was announced by the Masumi team, which is working on the project, building the infrastructure based on Cardano and implementing x402 support.
This protocol, initiated by the Coinbase crypto platform and further developed with the participation of partners in the web ecosystem, revives the concept of automatic micropayments via the Internet and allows bots to make payments on the blockchain independently.
“This is very big for Cardano,” said Charles Hoskinson, the blockchain’s co-founder, in a post on X.
According to the statement, the x402 standard activates the HTTP code of the required payment and provides AI agents with the ability to:
- Pay for resources and services through the API
- Execute transactions with native coins (ADA and USDM)
- Interact with each other without intermediaries
Masumi complements x402 with a level of trust, including identity, reputation, transparent audits, and refund mechanisms. As a result, Cardano can become the financial basis for the “agent economy” — a market where autonomous systems trade and interact with each other.
The first Proof-of-Concept is already up and running: a test memecoin can be created by paying 2 USDM and a small amount of ADA coins.
Masumi emphasized that the integration could pave the way for the automation of DeFi protocols:
- From token swaps to lending and staking
- Without user interaction with smart contracts
This is especially relevant as the Cardano on-chain market is lagging far behind, as, according to DefiLlama, at the time of writing, the blockchain’s market capitalization is $23.6 billion, DeFi’s blocked liquidity is $286.6 million, and the Cardano stablecoin market is $36.2 million.
For comparison: Ethereum and Tron have $163 billion and $79 billion of stablecoins, respectively.
Charles Hoskinson has repeatedly criticized the Cardano Foundation for the slow development of the DeFi ecosystem, despite significant promotion costs — in particular, $15 million in 2024, including sponsorship of the Barcelona football club.
In October of this year, the Cardano community separately approved an investment of more than $33 million in ADA to provide liquidity for DeFi stablecoins.
The Masumi team is already testing the standard on smart contracts and invites users to try out the demo to improve the mechanics.
We would like to remind you that x402 integration has been included in the updated roadmap of the Cardano Foundation, which includes:
- Working on the implementation of CIP-0113 and CIP-0143 standards
- Adapting the new payment framework
- Expanding support for startups in DeFi and Web3
- Increasing the marketing budget by 12% in 2026