Official Participation of Visa, Mastercard, and Ripple in the x402 Foundation and the Full-Scale Standardization of AI Agent Payments

On July 14, 2026, the Linux Foundation officially announced the start of operations for the x402 Foundation. This follows the donation of the x402 protocol, developed by Coinbase, to the Linux Foundation. Ripple has joined as a premier member alongside global payment giants Visa and Mastercard, drawing significant public attention. This alliance aims to establish standards for AI agents to trade autonomously and has already begun demonstrating practical payment efficiency.

The x402 Foundation is now beginning its full-scale activities under an official open governance system. By transitioning from a project led by Coinbase to a standard protocol involving multiple stakeholders, it has solidified its position as an independent, internet-native payment infrastructure not dependent on any specific company. The Linux Foundation stated that this launch will be a significant milestone in standardizing internet-native payments for AI agents and applications.

Ripple is proud to join the x402 Foundation as a premier member. As AI agents take on more of the transaction process, there is a growing demand for payment infrastructure that can move value as efficiently as information is exchanged.

Currently, a total of 40 companies, including Visa, Mastercard, and Ripple, are responsible for the governance of the x402 protocol. In particular, Ripple is playing a key role in technical and governance development and is moving to integrate its stablecoin RLUSD and XRP into the AI agent payment ecosystem. The participation of these large financial institutions increases the likelihood that x402 will move beyond a mere technical experiment to become a standard in the actual financial market.

The Revival of HTTP 402 Code and Technical Mechanisms

The core of the x402 protocol lies in activating the HTTP 402 code, which was reserved as 'Payment Required' in the 1996 HTTP/1.1 specification but remained unused due to a lack of infrastructure. This protocol defines a 'pay-per-request' flow where, if a server requests payment when an AI agent sends an API request, the agent autonomously recognizes and executes the payment. This enables direct value exchange between machines.

• Processed a total of 75 million payments during the month of June 2026
• Achieved a total payment settlement volume of approximately $24 million
• Recorded an average payment cost of 32 cents (approx. $0.32) per transaction
• 40 major financial and technology companies worldwide participating in governance

The above metrics demonstrate that the x402 protocol is proving overwhelming efficiency in the field of micropayments. The fact that the total settlement amount is only $24 million despite the massive transaction volume of 75 million suggests that ultra-small unit transactions between AI agents, which were difficult to process through existing financial networks, have effectively become active. In particular, the low average payment cost of 32 cents is a key factor ensuring the scalability of the agent economy.

In the 'agent economy,' where AI agents autonomously purchase resources and use services without human intervention, existing payment systems have faced barriers such as high fees and complex approval procedures. x402 has minimized this friction, establishing a foundation to secure economic viability even for sub-cent (less than 1 cent) tasks. This enables autonomous commerce, such as AI purchasing data or renting computing power on its own.

Ripple and Mastercard are already conducting credit card pilot operations using the RLUSD stablecoin, attempting to combine the x402-based agent payment network with traditional financial systems. This stablecoin settlement method contributes to building trust between agents by reducing price volatility and enabling instant payments. Ripple's participation is interpreted as a strategic intent to transplant the technical capabilities of the XRP Ledger into this ecosystem.

Future Challenges and Authorization Framework

Beyond simple payment settlement, the construction of an 'Authorization' framework regarding how much an AI agent can autonomously pay is cited as the next challenge. Industry experts analyze that a standardized authorization management system is essential to solve the problem where the cost of approval procedures becomes greater than the transaction value as payment amounts decrease. The x402 Foundation plans to focus on establishing such legal and technical frameworks.

In conclusion, the launch of the x402 Foundation signifies the completion of the native payment layer that has been predicted since the early days of the internet. As it combines the massive capital and technical prowess of Visa, Mastercard, and Ripple, x402 is expected to establish itself as a standard payment protocol for the AI era, moving beyond a mere technical experiment. This will be the starting point for a paradigm shift from human-centric finance to machine- and agent-centric finance.