Stack History

Key moments in the emergence of AI agent payment infrastructure. From the first autonomous agents earning on-chain to the first HTTP-native payment protocol.

167 projects · 6 layers · $43M verified volume · Updated March 2026
Days Since x402 Launch
Nov 2024 → today
Projects Mapped
167
across 6 layers
Acquisitions Tracked
7
since 2024
On-chain Volume (30d)
$43M
98.6% USDC
Before the Stack — 2021–2023
Oct 2021
Launch
Botto launches — first autonomous agent earning on-chain revenue
An autonomous AI artist that creates generative art and sells it on-chain, governed by community token holders. The earliest live example of an agent with its own economic loop: create, sell, earn.
Mar 2022
Launch
Olas (Autonolas) launches — co-owned autonomous agent services
Decentralized protocol for agents that operate as autonomous services and earn from their work. First formal attempt at agent ownership and revenue-sharing as a protocol primitive.
Jul 2023
Launch
Virtuals Protocol launches on Base — tokenized agent launchpad
Launchpad for tokenized AI agents on Base. Agents earn revenue and share it with token holders — proving that agent economic models could attract significant capital and developer interest.
The Stack Forms — 2024
Oct 2024
Launch
ElizaOS open-sourced — most-forked agent framework
Multi-agent framework from ai16z becomes the default runtime for autonomous agent deployments. 17,000+ GitHub stars, 5,500+ forks, 530 contributors. The x402 and Coinbase AgentKit SDKs both ship ElizaOS plugins, anchoring it as the application layer standard.
Nov 2024
Protocol
x402 launches on Base mainnet — HTTP-native agent payments
Coinbase publishes x402: an open protocol using the HTTP 402 status code so agents can discover, negotiate, and pay for services in a single round-trip. Open-source, deployed via CREATE2 at the same address on every EVM chain. The first protocol designed specifically for machine-to-machine payments at API call granularity.
The Race — 2025–2026
Mar 12, 2026
Standard
ERC-8004 published — first formal agent spending policy spec
The first formal Ethereum standard for agent spending policy: budget limits, per-merchant allow-lists, time-boxed spend windows, and human approval thresholds. Whoever controls this layer controls the rules for autonomous commerce. No implementation has won yet.
Mar 18, 2026
Volume
x402 crosses 75M transactions in 30 days
The reference implementation's 30-day transaction count reaches 75 million — an order of magnitude more than any competing agent payment protocol. Base remains the dominant settlement chain; USDC accounts for 98.6% of tracked volume across the full stack.
Mar 21, 2026
Acquisition
Fireblocks acquires Dynamic — custody meets wallet identity
The most significant M&A move tracked so far. Institutional custody buying wallet identity signals that the stack is collapsing from six layers into fewer, larger players. Fireblocks moves from pure custody into agent identity infrastructure, positioning for the role of institutional gateway to agentic commerce.
Mar 25, 2026
APS
Agent Payments Stack launches — 88 projects, 24K+ tweet views
The first public map of the agent payments infrastructure landscape. 88 projects across 6 layers on launch day. 24,000+ tweet impressions in the first 24 hours. Inbound project submissions begin within hours.
Mar 27, 2026
APS
v2.0 — 162 projects, x402 ecosystem expansion, graph view
Full x402 ecosystem mapped: Stellar, Agently, Kobaru, Cloudflare, FluxA, and 14 more added. Force-directed graph view launches showing 6 layer hubs and 45 cross-layer connections. LinkedIn post surfaces Bond.credit within an hour via founder inbound. Funding, chain, and launch date enrichment on 18 projects.
agentpaymentsstack.com · @jordanlyall
data.json · llms.txt