The XRP Ledger has surpassed 10 million x402 payments, reaching the milestone less than three months after crossing its first 1 million payments.
J. Ayo Akinyele, RippleX’s Head of Engineering, confirmed the achievement in a disclosure on X. He revealed that the network now handles about 500,000 payments daily, based on its latest seven-day average.
Akinyele called attention to the rising use of AI agents as a key reason behind the sharp increase in activity.
These agents can now find services, make payments, and access digital resources on their own, without needing human intervention. This growing level of automation is helping expand machine-to-machine payments on the XRP Ledger.
What Is the x402 Protocol?
Coinbase launched x402 last May as an open protocol that allows instant payments through HTTP by bringing back the long-unused HTTP 402 “Payment Required” status code.
We are excited to introduce x402–a new open source payments protocol built on HTTP rails.
Let’s break it down: pic.twitter.com/9PNI49NK7A
— Coinbase Developer Platform🛡️ (@CoinbaseDev) May 6, 2025
The protocol allows AI agents, applications, and APIs to pay for digital services as easily as they exchange data. It removes the need for accounts, API keys, and human approval for each payment. This makes payments a direct part of online services, not an extra step.
The XRP Ledger joined the x402 ecosystem through an implementation developed by t54. From the start, the implementation allowed agents to settle payments using either XRP or RLUSD.
XRPL’s deterministic finality confirms payments within three to five seconds, and this gives AI agents the certainty they need to move on to their next task. Each XRP Ledger transaction also carries a fixed fee of $0.0002, which makes sub-cent micropayments practical for digital services.
From 1M to 10M: A Rapid Ascent
The XRP Ledger added x402 in June 2026, and crossed the 1 million payment mark within weeks. By late July, the network had processed more than 1.4 million agentic transactions.
Around the time XRPL reached 1 million payments, Akinyele told The Block that he expected the network to move past 10 million quickly and could potentially reach 100 million within a few years.
The RippleX engineering head based this outlook on the growing development of AI agents and continued improvements in the infrastructure supporting them.
The 1 million milestone came around the same time as the launch of the XRPL AI Hub, a platform built for developers, users, and community members working on AI applications on the ledger.
The XRPL AI Starter Kit also launched during this period, which gave AI agents tools to send and receive XRP and RLUSD. After the Starter Kit launched, XRP settlement volume through x402 jumped 289% in the following weeks, as both developments helped drive more activity on the network.
AI Agents Lead, But Diversification Takes Hold
Akinyele’s latest update shows that AI agents paying for inference and data services still account for most x402 activity on the XRP Ledger.
However, the network is also seeing more x402-compatible services emerge across areas such as financial data, credit, risk management, and other APIs built for AI agents. This confirms that the ecosystem is moving past early developer testing and into practical business uses.
According to t54, most x402 activity on the XRP Ledger currently involves payments for APIs and data. More service providers are starting to see the cost benefits of settling through XRPL, which is helping expand the number of x402 services available to agents.
The large number of small payments also fits the needs of machine-to-machine commerce, where traditional payment systems can face challenges handling frequent, low-value transactions.
XRP Ledger Positions Itself as Machine Economy Infrastructure
Ripple has also increased its involvement in the sector by joining the Linux Foundation-backed x402 Foundation as a Premier Member.
The Foundation launched in July 2026 under a formal open-governance structure with 40 members. Its members include Amazon Web Services, Adyen, American Express, Stripe, Circle, Mastercard, Visa, Cloudflare, Google and Coinbase.
The Foundation seeks to help standardize internet-based payments for AI agents and applications. Ripple’s membership gives the company a direct role in discussions about the protocol’s technical roadmap and governance standards.