Jesse Pollak of Coinbase Foresees AI Agents Revolutionizing Crypto Payments

The swift emergence of AI agents is transforming the online payment landscape, with crypto infrastructure poised to become a key player, according to Jesse Pollak of Coinbase. In a recent interview with CoinDesk, Pollak noted that what was once nearly impossible just nine months ago is now entirely feasible, thanks to the rapid advancement of autonomous AI systems. As these agents continue to evolve, the need for native transaction capabilities is becoming increasingly apparent. "Agents are defined by software and operate on software, so they require money in a software format," Pollak explained. He will be discussing this topic further at Consensus Miami 2026 next month. This shift is driving interest in "agentic payments," where AI systems can autonomously pay for services such as data access, computing power, or travel bookings. Pollak hopes that a crucial component of this framework will be x402, an open-source payments protocol developed by Coinbase and collaborators like Microsoft, Google, and Mastercard, which enables on-demand API payments without traditional subscriptions or billing systems. By leveraging blockchain-based payments, agents can make a single API call or smart contract call to transfer money globally, virtually instantly, and at minimal cost, according to Pollak. Early adoption is already evident, with approximately $48 million in payment volume having flowed through X402 so far, and about 95% of these transactions occurring on Base, the Ethereum layer-2 network founded by Pollak and incubated by Coinbase. The ecosystem is expanding rapidly, with integrations spanning AI providers, data platforms, and travel services that agents can access directly. Pollak's long-term vision is to create an open marketplace where agents can access services programmatically, without encountering paywalls or requiring human intervention. "The goal is to enable agents to operate freely," he said, describing a system where software can seamlessly discover, purchase, and utilize digital services in real-time. While fully autonomous "zero-human" businesses are beginning to emerge, Pollak believes the more significant near-term shift will come from people augmenting themselves with AI. "Top performers are now using agents to further enhance their performance," he said, describing workflows powered by multiple parallel AI systems. For the crypto industry, the broader challenge remains adoption. According to Pollak, the solution lies not in better marketing, but in making crypto more invisible and seamless to use. "It will be much easier to promote crypto when people don't need to be aware of it, they simply experience it," he said.