Критика протокола x402: айсберг под водой в мире микроплатежей Translation: Headline: Critique of the x402 Protocol: An Iceberg Beneath the Surface in the World of Micropayments

Focused on AI payments and cross-border transfers, the x402 protocol initially experienced a surge of excitement, but now the hype surrounding its ecosystem is waning. Blogger WuBlockchain, under the pseudonym shisi.eth, has tested the technology and assessed its true potential beyond speculative narratives.

x402 is an open payment standard introduced by Coinbase in May 2025, enabling instantaneous automatic payments in stablecoins via HTTP.

The rapid rise in popularity began in the fall: from October 20 to 26 alone, 932,440 transactions totaling $913,888 were processed. In contrast, the entire month of September recorded only 46,574 transactions.

Developers have increasingly adopted the protocol for launching meme coins. The data aggregator CoinGecko has added a category for coins based on x402.

The market capitalization of this segment swiftly surpassed $1 billion. However, as seen in the graph below, the figures have started to decline in recent months:

At its core, x402 is based on a specification for network interactions at the API level. The name references the HTTP status code HTTP 402 («Payment Required»), which has remained unused in web development for decades.

The protocol establishes a stateless on-chain payment standard. Its operational mechanism includes:

Although x402 is universal and theoretically compatible with nearly any payment solutions, Coinbase’s current implementation is closely tied to blockchain models.

According to the exchange, the protocol outperforms traditional systems like PayPal or Stripe in terms of transaction speed and fee amounts. However, the author believes it falls short in terms of refundability and scalability.

To develop the payment infrastructure, x402 relies on several key technologies:

Representatives from Google, Visa, Cloudflare, the Ethereum Foundation, and MetaMask are involved in the development of x402-related standards, particularly ERC-8004 for the reputation of on-chain agents.

Despite the continued interest in x402, shisi.eth has urged crypto investors to exercise caution, noting that the recent wave of popularity is largely driven by speculation surrounding meme tokens that have no real connection to the underlying technology.

Among the drawbacks of the current implementation, the expert highlighted:

In the author’s view, x402 is likely to experience a lull following the initial hype wave. The protocol is reminiscent of QR payments in their early days — the technology is straightforward and promising, but requires additional service layers for commercial application.

The most likely growth area will be in cross-border payments and payment for AI service usage, where user experience in fiat transactions currently faces challenges. However, mass adoption will require time and integration with global products, rather than merely launching more tokens.

It is worth noting that the cross-chain bridge 402bridge lost over 17,000 USDC. Due to a private key leak, more than a dozen of the team’s test and main wallets were compromised.