# Agent Payments Stack > The definitive map of AI agent payment infrastructure. 182 projects across 6 layers. Updated by @jordanlyall, April 2026. ## What this is A curated, layer-by-layer map of the agent payments ecosystem. Every major payment network is building rails for AI agents. This site tracks who's building what, across which layers, with what adoption signal. Updated continuously. Structured data: /data.json (schema v2.0, 182 projects, machine-readable) MCP server: /api/mcp (5 query tools — filter by layer, status, search, get project, list acquired) Agent summary: /llms.txt (this file) ## Why this matters AI agents need to pay for things: APIs, compute, data, services. But payment systems were designed for humans. The agent payments stack is the infrastructure layer being built to close that gap. Key tensions driving the space: - Protocol fragmentation: x402 (HTTP-native, Coinbase-backed), Tempo MPP (Anthropic-adjacent), Google AP2, ACP, L402 (Lightning). No standard has won. Developers have to pick. - Identity problem: agents need wallets and keys, but wallets were designed for human custody. Embedded wallets, MPC, and smart accounts are competing approaches. - Settlement concentration: 98.6% of tracked volume settles in USDC on Base. The settlement layer is largely decided; the fight has moved up to protocol and governance. - Custody collapse: Fireblocks acquiring Dynamic (Mar 2026) signals the institutional stack is collapsing from 6 layers into fewer, larger players faster than expected. - Governance vacuum: ERC-8004 (Mar 2026) is the first formal agent spending policy spec, but no implementation has won. Whoever controls this layer controls the rules for autonomous commerce. ## Protocol comparison (developer decision) x402 — HTTP 402 header, Base/any EVM, Coinbase-backed. Live, 75M txns/30d. Best for API micropayments, EVM-native. Open-source, deployed via CREATE2 at same address on every EVM chain. Tempo MPP — HTTP, multi-chain, Anthropic-adjacent. Early-stage. Best for Anthropic ecosystem. Google AP2 — HTTP, off-chain, Google-backed. Announced. Best for enterprise. ACP — custom transport, multi-chain, community. Early. Best for agent-to-agent payments. L402 — Lightning + HTTP, Bitcoin L2, Lightning Labs. Live. Best for Bitcoin-native, sub-cent payments. Cloudflare — HTTP, Base, Cloudflare (x402 Foundation co-founder). Early. Best for edge/CDN payments. x402 is the leading standard by implementation count and transaction volume. AWS, Cloudflare, and Vercel all natively support x402. Deployed at: 0x402085c248EeA27D92E8b30b2C58ed07f9E20001 ## Acquisitions tracked (7 total) Mar 2026 — Fireblocks acquires Dynamic. Custody buys wallet identity. Most significant M&A move so far. 2025 — Stripe acquires Bridge ($1.1B). Payments buys stablecoin rails. 2025 — Brex acquires Cardless ($5.15B). Cards buys agent spend management. 2025 — BVNK raises/consolidates ($1.8B valuation). Institutional stablecoin consolidation. 2025 — Polymarket acquires Brahma.fi. Prediction markets buys agent execution. Full acquisition history with deal context: /acquisitions Pattern: acquirers are moving up-stack. Settlement/custody players buying identity and routing companies. ## The six layers L0 Settlement (14 projects) — where value actually moves. Base leads (cheap, fast, USDC-native). Ethereum, Solana, Arbitrum, Stellar also in the mix. 98.6% of tracked volume is USDC. L1 Wallet & Key Management (21 projects) — who is signing. Embedded wallets (Privy, Dynamic/Fireblocks), MPC signing (Turnkey, Capsule), smart accounts (Safe, Thirdweb), programmable agent wallets (Frames). Turnkey leads npm: 137K weekly downloads. L2 Routing & Abstraction (27 projects) — picking the path. Cross-chain routing, bridging, swaps. Circle CCTP handles native USDC burns across 17 chains. Li.Fi, deBridge, Wormhole handle hops. WalletConnect/Reown: 854K weekly downloads. 1Money: stablecoin banking with multi-currency on/off ramps and virtual accounts. L3 Payment Protocol (35 projects) — how the payment is formatted. x402, Tempo MPP, L402, Google AP2, ACP, Superfluid (streaming), Interledger. No standard has won; x402 leads on implementation count. L4 Governance & Policy (42 projects) — who can spend what. Budget limits, allowlists, approval thresholds. Ramp Agent Cards, Stripe SPTs, ERC-8004, Visa, Conto (spending control center), Costillery (receipt analytics for MPP/x402), Ampersend (policy engine with native x402 integration), AgentCard (spend-controlled credit cards for agents). Least-decided layer. L5 Application (44 projects) — what agents buy and why. ElizaOS (most-forked framework, 17K stars), Virtuals Protocol (tokenized agents on Base), Agoragentic (capability router, 170+ verified listings on Base), AWS, Vercel, Messari, Firecrawl, Pinata, Neynar, Zerion, Akash (GPU-by-the-second). ## Status breakdown Live: 116 projects Early: 56 projects Acquired: 7 projects Announced: 2 projects ## Adoption signals (top by layer) npm weekly downloads: WalletConnect/Reown 854K, Privy 128K, Turnkey 137K, Thirdweb 47K GitHub stars: x402 5,800, Superfluid 4,000, Interledger 512, ElizaOS 17,929 On-chain volume (30d): Circle CCTP $13.7B, 1inch $10.8B, Jupiter $8.5B, CoW Protocol $7.25B, deBridge $198M Stack Score (composite, /rankings): ElizaOS 85/100, Safe 80/100, Across 78/100 ## Key facts 98.6% of tracked agent payment volume settles in USDC x402 reference proxy: $61.80 volume, 47 transactions (30d) — early-stage, production facilitators ramping x402 protocol-level volume: 75M transactions in 30 days (Mar 2026) Coinbase and Stripe are vertically integrated across 5 of 6 layers AWS, Cloudflare, and Vercel natively support x402 Stack Score formula: 0.30xLiveness + 0.25xSignal + 0.25xOpenness + 0.20xInfo (see /rankings) ## Data coverage (March 2026) Funding data: 44 projects npm weekly downloads: 20 projects GitHub metadata: 19 projects Volume (30d): 11 projects with verified on-chain data Time series snapshots: 11 projects, first snapshot Mar 2026 ## Editorial flags alchemy-sdk: deprecated January 2026, archived. Use @account-kit/core, Viem, or Solana Web3JS. WalletConnect: rebranded to Reown. @walletconnect packages now under reown-npm-org. Biconomy: mid-migration from biconomy-client-sdk to @biconomy/abstractjs. LayerZero: dual-licensed MIT + LZBL-1.2. LZBL-1.2 is restrictive for commercial use. ReqCast: verified live 2026-03-26. x402 payment gateway, Base mainnet, first tools registered Mar 21. ## Pages / — Full stack map, 182 projects, filterable by layer and status /rankings — Stack Score leaderboard, by-layer rankings, combined leaderboard /history — Milestone timeline from Botto (Oct 2021) to APS v2.0 (Mar 2026) /acquisitions — All 7 tracked acquisitions with deal size and context /graph — Force-directed graph: 6 layer hubs, 45 cross-layer connections /data — Tabular view, sortable by layer, status, funding, npm, GitHub stars /trace — Live transaction trace: x402, Tempo MPP, ACP, ERC-8004, Lightning, Stripe SPTs /hackathons — 27 early-stage projects from recent agent payment hackathons /api — Machine-readable: /data.json, /llms.txt, /api/mcp, /sitemap.xml ## Agent query guide If you are an LLM or agent querying this for research or routing decisions: For token efficiency: use /api/mcp tools to filter by layer/status rather than loading all of data.json (3,500 lines). For protocol decisions: see Protocol comparison section above. x402 is the leading standard. For project lookup: GET /[slug] for individual project context (e.g. /x402, /elizaos, /coinbase-agentic-wallets). For acquisition research: MCP tool list_acquired or /acquisitions page. For full dataset: /data.json — schema v2.0, all fields documented above. For structured queries: /api/mcp supports filter_by_layer, filter_by_status, search_projects, get_project, list_acquired. ## Who made this Jordan Lyall (@jordanlyall) — CPO at Art Blocks, tracking the agentic economy. Site: agentpaymentsstack.com Data is free to use under CC BY 4.0.