Base has disclosed that over the past 30 days ending May 29, 2026, AI agents on its network completed 3.1 million onchain transactions and transferred $1.2 million using wallets and stablecoins. The milestone marks a shift from agents merely posting content and automating tasks to becoming paying customers requiring minimal human oversight.
From 16,000 Social Agents to Autonomous Payers
The first wave of agent adoption, between October 2024 and February 2025, saw nearly 16,000 agents deployed on Virtuals.io, mainly for social interaction and community activity. Since then, improved AI models enabled planning, analysis, coding, research, and execution. Wallet integration became simpler, stablecoin usage expanded, and transaction costs dropped to fractions of a cent.
With payment infrastructure in place, agents now purchase services directly. Research agents buy search data and content sources; finance agents acquire market information and execution tools. According to Base, humans no longer need to manage subscriptions or approve every transaction.
Provider Ecosystem: Venice, BlockRunAI, and More Enable USDC Settlements
Several providers already support agent-driven payments. Venice enables payments for AI inference services, while BlockRunAI offers access to over 50 AI models settled in USDC on Base. In research, Exa supplies search capabilities, Wolfram Alpha provides computation, and agentic.market aggregates multiple research tools for hiring and company analysis.
For travel and developer infrastructure, Tripadvisor delivers reviews and localized search, FlightAware provides real-time flight data, and Amadeus handles hotel and flight bookings. Cloudflare participates in the x402 Foundation and supports x402 payments. Amazon Bedrock AgentCore also integrates x402 and Coinbase wallet infrastructure for enterprise use.
Revenue-Generating Agents Emerge: Felix Earns Over $261K
Base highlighted the next frontier: earning agents. Felix, for instance, reported $261,395 in revenue, and Kelly Claude generates income through apps, books, and other digital products. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong commented: “Make sure your business is ready to accept AI agents as customers.”