Coinbase Partners Linux Foundation to Build Internet-Native Payment Layer

The x402 protocol, a universal standard created by Coinbase to facilitate agentic payments, is moving to the Linux Foundation, a nonprofit organization focused on open source.

The Linux Foundation is launching the x402 Foundation, which will serve as the neutral home for x402 and as the governing body for the standard, according to a Thursday (April 2) press release.

The x402 Foundation was initially developed by Coinbase, Cloudflare and Stripe. Now, it will add a broad set of industry participants and become an open source model for all internet-native payments, according to the release.

Early participants in the x402 Foundation include Adyen, Amazon Web Services, American Express, Ampersend.ai, Base, Circle, Cloudflare, Coinbase, Fiserv Merchant Solutions, Google, Kakao Pay, Mastercard, Merit Systems, Microsoft, Polygon Labs, PPRO, Shopify, Sierra, Solana Foundation, Stripe, thirdweb and Visa, per the release.

“The internet was built on open protocols,” Linux Foundation CEO Jim Zemlin said in the release. “The x402 Foundation will create an open, community-governed home to develop these capabilities in the open, ensuring they evolve with transparency, interoperability and broad participation across the ecosystem.”

Coinbase introduced x402 in May, describing it as an open standard that employs the original HTTP “402 Payment Required” status code to embed stablecoin payments into web interactions. The company said this approach would support autonomous AI agents, stablecoins and instant, frictionless payments native to the internet.

In February, Coinbase developed a crypto wallet infrastructure designed for AI agents and said the project is based around x402. The company added that at that point, x402 was “already battle-tested” with over 50 million transactions.

In the Thursday press release, Coinbase Chief Business Officer Shan Aggarwal said: “x402 moves us toward a more open financial system where sending value online is as simple as sending an email. By backing the x402 Foundation, we’re helping build the native payment layer the internet has never had — one that’s global, programmable and always on.”

The PYMNTS Intelligence report “How Acquirers Prepare for Agentic Commerce” found that nearly 80% of surveyed acquirers said they are at least somewhat prepared to support seamless omnichannel shopping experiences, a prerequisite for any system in which autonomous agents transact across digital and physical environments.