Coinbase said its x402 service discovery layer and wallet infrastructure are now natively integrated into Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Payments, giving AWS developers a way to deploy AI agents that can discover services, make micropayments, and continue executing tasks with built-in compliance controls and real-time USDC settlement.
The announcement focuses on a long-standing enterprise hurdle in agent deployment. Companies may want agents that can transact, but legal review, compliance checks, spending controls, and audit trails have made production rollout difficult. Brian Foster, Coinbase’s head of infrastructure growth, said enterprises have been asking for agents that can buy services, but many deployments stalled at compliance review; the managed setup inside AWS is intended to address that gap.
Managed payments through a single API call
According to Coinbase, AgentCore Payments is part of the Amazon Bedrock platform, which means enterprises already operating on AWS can enable the feature without adding new infrastructure or establishing new vendor relationships. Combined with x402, the system allows an agent payment flow to be handled through a single API call covering wallet verification, transaction signing, and payment execution, while the agent itself does not get access to private keys.
Developers can also define time-limited spending caps. Coinbase gave the example of “$1.00, expiring in five minutes”, so an agent stops spending once it reaches a preset limit. On the compliance side, CDP Facilitator is described as including controls that manage sanctions screening and illicit finance risk for each transaction, with logs, metrics, and dashboards covering the full payment lifecycle.
x402 runs the payment layer underneath
The payment stack is built on x402, an open protocol that uses the HTTP 402 “Payment Required” status code for machine-native payments. Coinbase listed several operating metrics for the setup: roughly 200 millisecond settlement on Base, settlement in USDC, and fees below one cent per transaction. The flow is designed to work without accounts, subscriptions, or checkout pages.
Agents running on AgentCore can also connect to thousands of x402 services through Coinbase MCP, which is integrated into AgentCore Gateway. Coinbase named Exa, Messari, and Browserbase among the available providers. In practice, that lets agents search for tools, evaluate options, and pay for access during runtime without manual preconfiguration, with use cases including data queries, real-time search, and backend service setup.
Foundation-backed protocol with disclosed usage figures
x402 is managed by the x402 Foundation as an open and neutral protocol. AWS and Coinbase are both members, along with dozens of companies from the technology and payments sectors. Coinbase said the protocol has processed more than 169 million payments over the past year, spanning over 590,000 buyers and more than 100,000 sellers.
The company also noted that the products mentioned may not be available in every region.