Imagine this scene: On a morning in 2026, an AI agent quietly operates under your authorization—comparing prices across global data markets, invoking three APIs to collect information, paying $0.07 to complete a transaction, provisioning cloud computing resources and automatically reserving $0.02 for settlement, then paying $0.01 to another agent downstream to generate a report. The entire process takes just four seconds—without a bank account, credit card, or SWIFT code. This is not science fiction; it is the millions of real transactions currently being processed by x402 and the MPP protocol. The emergence of AI agent payments means the “decision-making entity” in business processes is extending from humans to machines. Traditional payment systems assume that humans click to purchase on trusted interfaces, with authorization occurring at checkout pages or during bank authentication. Agentic Commerce—commercial activity autonomously driven by intelligent agents—changes this logic: AI agents can search for products, compare prices, negotiate terms, access APIs, purchase data, invoke other agents, complete payments, and trigger fulfillment—all on behalf of users. However, payment systems must answer three critical questions: Has the user authorized the action? How can the merchant verify that the request truly reflects the user’s intent? And who is liable in the event of an error or fraudulent transaction? To address these challenges, the industry is building an entirely new agent payment technology stack. At the authorization layer, Google, in collaboration with over 60 institutions, has launched the Agent Payments Protocol (AP2). AP2 can be simply understood as a set of “rules” spearheaded by Google, ensuring that every step an AI agent takes when spending on behalf of a user is authorized and verifiable—from “wanting to buy” to “placing an order” to “making payment”—with an immutable, non-repudiable audit trail. Specific details will be elaborated in Section 3.3. At the execution layer, AP2 integrates Coinbase’s x402 protocol as its stablecoin payment rail. The x402 protocol repurposes the HTTP 402 (Payment Required) status code, enabling agents to perform micropayments in real time without requiring accounts or API keys. This layered architecture reveals that AI agent payments are not merely about “giving robots a wallet”—they involve reorganizing authorization, identity, payment credentials, risk control, and dispute resolution into auditable, machine-native protocols. This content is excerpted from Web3Caff Research’s report: “The Web3 Payments Landscape (2025–2026): Mid-Volume Report—From Narrative-Driven Hype to Infrastructure Realization: How Stablecoins, Agent Payments, and Stable Chains Are Reshaping the Next-Generation Payment System? A Comprehensive Breakdown of Industry Context, Protocol Standards, Major Players’ Strategic Positions, and Global Regulatory Dynamics.” View the full report here👇 https://t.co/liRULsdkG8