Jesse Pollak of Coinbase Envisions AI Agents as the Future of Crypto Payments

The swift growth of AI agents is revolutionizing online transactions, with crypto infrastructure emerging as a natural fit, as stated by Jesse Pollak of Coinbase. Pollak noted in an interview with CoinDesk that what was nearly impossible just nine months ago has become a reality, thanks to the rapid advancement of autonomous AI systems. As these agents continue to evolve, the need for native transaction methods has become apparent. This shift has sparked interest in "agentic payments," where AI systems can autonomously pay for services such as data access, computing power, or travel bookings. Pollak expressed his hope that the x402 open-source payments protocol, developed by Coinbase and collaborators like Microsoft, Google, and Mastercard, will be a key component of this stack. The protocol enables on-demand API payments without the need for subscriptions or traditional billing systems. Instead of relying on traditional payment rails, blockchain-based payments allow agents to make a single API call or smart contract call, enabling them to transfer money globally, instantly, and almost free of charge, according to Pollak. There is already visible traction, with approximately $48 million in payment volume having flowed through X402 so far, and about 95% of transactions taking place 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 of services that agents can access programmatically, without encountering paywalls or requiring human intervention. "You want agents to be able to run wild," 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 bigger near-term shift will come from people augmenting themselves with AI. "The top performers are now using agents to become even more top performers," he said, describing workflows powered by multiple parallel AI systems. For crypto, the broader challenge remains adoption. Pollak argued that the solution lies not in better marketing, but in making the technology invisible.