x402 Protocol launches V2 version, upgrading from enabling AI to “pay with money” to “enjoy first, pay later,” introducing delayed payment mechanisms, multi-chain compatibility, and hybrid payment tracks. This builds credit capability for AI Agents and opens a new chapter for AgentFi financial narratives.
(Background summary: Decoding “x402”: Reshaping Trust in AI Payments, the Holy Grail for Next-Generation Machine Civilizations)
(Additional context: The importance of x402 for stablecoin payments)

Table of Contents

• Moving from giving AI a wallet to “enjoy first, pay later”
• Following the clues, which projects are on the V2 wave?
• Category One: AI Credit Bureau and Performance Layer
• Category Two: AI “utilities” and inspection agents
• Category Three: AI “asset side” and execution layer
• Summary

Deep and subtle, rekindling the x402 narrative with faint clues.

Recently, the crypto market has entered a typical “garbage time,” with market sentiment bouncing between fatigue and anxiety.

In this silent period lacking obvious wealth effects, focusing on localized hot narratives is a cost-effective choice, such as infrastructure still being built or quietly iterated.

About 1-2 months ago, we introduced Coinbase’s x402 protocol and the related ERC-8004 protocol early on. At that time, there was a 1-2 week window, and tokens involved in the related narratives saw notable gains.

(Related reading: Google and Visa are both deploying, what investment opportunities does the underestimated x402 protocol hide?)

In the analysis back then, I judged that the core narrative of x402 v1 was solving the “AI with a wallet” problem, allowing AI Agents to complete on-chain payments via simple API calls. This was seen as an important move for Base chain in the AI track.

Although the logic was verified, x402 was limited by single-chain environment and single settlement mode, thus not exploding on a large scale.

What many overlooked yesterday is that the developers of x402 quietly released the V2 version.

If V1 was just an experimental tool enabling AI to “pay with money,” the V2 changelog reveals bigger ambitions:

Full-chain compatibility, hybrid encrypted and unencrypted payment tracks, and crucially, the “trustworthiness” of “service first, pay later.” These features are not simple patches but an attempt to build a truly suitable financial infrastructure for the “machine business society.”

This aligns well with the correct narrative of AI.

You could say the crypto market now has little profit effect, but it’s not a bad idea to stay informed about active protocol updates.

What if you discover Alpha again?

From giving AI a wallet to “enjoy first, pay later”

For those who have forgotten what x402 is, here’s a one-sentence explanation of the initial version:

“Reviving the dormant 402 code in the network protocol, enabling AI to make purchases and data/services automatically through encrypted wallets via API calls, similar to human credit card use.”

V1 ran this logic, but in practice, it was cumbersome.

If your AI agent (Agent) needs to sign on-chain and pay Gas every time it infers or fetches data, this “pay first, deliver later” atomic transaction mode is highly inefficient and costly.

This made V1 more like a technical demo rather than a foundational infrastructure capable of handling commercial traffic.

The core change in V2 is precisely that it aims to normalize AI’s commercial behavior.

After careful study of V2 documentation, I believe the most noteworthy change is the introduction of a delayed payment mechanism.

In the original text, it states:

[Insert the original technical description]

Translated into financial language, it roughly means:

Allow service providers and AI to establish a “billing” relationship: AI can first utilize services (such as continuous calls to compute interfaces), with the system recording the usage in the background, and then performing a one-time settlement afterward.

This seems to only save Gas fees, but from a narrative perspective, it signifies that AI Agents begin to possess “credit.”

Once “pay later” is permitted, subdivided narrative tracks emerge, such as the market needing to assess the default risk of this Agent, which requires someone to provide guarantees for the newly created Agent.

This is essentially laying the groundwork for AgentFi, evolving from a simple payment tool to a credit and financial layer.

Besides this hidden “credit layer,” V2 also has two major explicit infrastructure updates:

2. From “Base first” to “Default multi-chain” (Multi-chain by default): V1 was heavily experimental within the Base ecosystem, whereas V2 defines a universal HTTP header interaction standard. This means that on Solana, Ethereum mainnet, or L2, as long as the standard is adapted, access is possible. This bridges cross-chain capital islands.

3. Hybrid rails (Hybrid Rails): V2 connects fiat and cryptocurrencies. Agents can pay with USDC, and through the x402 gateway, traditional cloud service providers (AWS, Google Cloud) can receive fiat directly. This is a key step for AI from on-chain hype to real-world procurement.

To intuitively understand the scope of this iteration, I’ve prepared a core comparison table of V1 and V2:

[Insert comparison table]

In summary, V2 doesn’t just want to be a toy on the Base chain; it leans more towards an AI economy’s VISA network, attempting to give AI a universal “credit card” across the entire web:

2. Use “delayed payment” to solve high-frequency trading efficiency challenges.
3. Use “multi-chain compatibility” to solve funding issues.

For players seeking Alpha, I predict this could imply two upcoming revaluations:

2. Who will provide credit ratings and guarantees for these AI? That is, the AI credit layer.
3. Who can sell compute power to AI via this streaming payment method first? Possibly related to the deployment of DePIN payments.

Following the clues, which projects are on the V2 wave?

Understanding the core upgrade logic of x402 V2 makes it clear how to find targets.

If x402 V2 is the “Visa settlement network” within the AI economy, then the following three types of protocols form the key nodes enabling this network’s operation.

Category One: AI Credit Bureau and Performance Layer

V2 introduces a “service first, then settlement” subscription model, which brings a challenge:

Why should service providers trust an anonymous AI Agent to pay on time at the end of the month?

Solving this requires two levels of assurance: first, credit score, to determine if it has the ability to pay; second, performance verification, to ensure tasks are done well. This is precisely where we previously discussed the convergence of x402 and ERC-8004 narratives.

Some obvious narrative-aligned projects include:

• Spectral ($SPEC), @Spectral_Labs

Positioning: On-chain credit scoring and machine intelligence network.

Relation: Spectral’s core product is MACRO scoring (similar to on-chain FICO). In the context of x402 V2, service providers can set thresholds: only Agents with credit scores meet the standard can activate “post-payment” mode. This is the premise for “buy now, pay later” logic.

Spectral’s upcoming Inferchain aims to solve Agent verification, complementing x402 V2’s settlement needs.

• Bond Credit, @bondoncredit

Positioning: Dedicated credit lending layer for AI agents.

Relation: Currently, one of the very few projects promoting “Credit for Agents.” When a new Agent wants to use cloud compute via x402 V2 but lacks funds, Bond Credit uses TEE to monitor its historical performance, offering credit guarantees, enabling service providers to confidently enable “delayed payment.”

Note: this project is early-stage, DYOR. But the track is highly vertical, filling a gap in AI lending.

• CARV ($CARV), @carv_official

Positioning: Modular data and identity layer.

Relation: Solves the “who am I” problem. x402 V2 supports multi-chain, and CARV’s ID standard enables Agents to maintain a unified identity across chains.

Official Twitter shows actual payment scenario testing.

By the way, the “performance verification” logic here also reaffirmed our judgment in the previous article about ERC-8004 standard.

x402 V2 handles “fund flow” settlement, while ERC-8004 standard verifies “business flow.”

Only after confirming service delivery will delayed payments be triggered. The related track logic we discussed earlier also applies here, once again illustrated:

[Insert diagram]

(Related reading: x402 gradually becoming competitive, exploring new asset opportunities within ERC-8004)

Category Two: AI Utilities and Inspection Agents

x402 V2’s “session-based settlement (Session-based)” greatly reduces high-frequency payment friction. Theoretically, this benefits DePIN projects selling compute power and verification protocols proving “no fake compute.”

Typical older protocols include:

• Akash Network ($AKT)

Positioning: Decentralized compute marketplace.

Relation: Compute leasing is a classic “per second / per volume” billing scenario. x402 V2 allows AI to directly use USDC or even fiat channels for streaming payments, greatly lowering the barrier for AI to procure compute.

Logically, this is more like passive benefits, less directly related.

• Giza ($GIZA), @gizatechxyz

Positioning: Verifiable machine learning protocol (ZKML) and DeFi Agent applications.

Relation: Giza has dual identities. As a technical layer, it acts as a “verification agent” before payment settlement. When paying expensive inference costs via x402, Giza’s ZKML tech can prove that “the model indeed ran as required.”

As an application, its flagship product (like ARMA) runs on payment rails similar to x402’s, as a DeFi Agent.

Category Three: AI Asset Side and Execution Layer

The narrative here is that if x402 v2 makes AI payments better, then who is producing these Agents? Who is using these tools to earn for users?

Old friend again, returning to Virtuals Protocol ($VIRTUAL).

As a leading AI Agent issuance platform, x402 V2 essentially gives Agents on Virtuals a “cross-chain passport.” Users holding VIRTUAL as Agents can, in the future, direct Agents via x402 protocol to participate in Solana’s new listings or arbitrage on mainnet.

• Brahma, @BrahmaFi

Positioning: On-chain execution and strategy orchestration layer.

Relation: Brahma’s core business automates complex DeFi strategies for users. They can use x402 to unify payment of Gas and execution fees for various Keeper (executors), achieving full automation.

This also hints at a category of DeFi-to-AgentFi scenario adaptation—the foundational infrastructure for DeFi to AgentFi transformation.

Summary

Finally, let’s step back and calmly consider the signals from the x402 V2 release.

Technically, x402 is a payment protocol. In the crypto context, it can lead to many financial plays.

V2, by introducing “delayed payment (credit)” and multi-chain accounts, also allows AI to have a balance sheet concept.

When an Agent is permitted to “serve first, pay later,” it gains liabilities; when it can hold multiple assets cross-chain, it gains equity.

With assets and liabilities, AI is no longer just a code script but becomes an independent economic entity with complex gameplay.

This is the true origin of the AgentFi (Agent Financial) narrative.

For speculation, during this market fatigue, there’s no need to imagine how AI will build complex business empires in the future—just focus on the fundamental narrative logic:

Previously, investing in AI meant investing in models, i.e., “who is smarter”; in the future, investing in AI means investing in finance, i.e., “who is richer.”

x402 V2 is just the starting gun. When the market turns bullish, keep an eye on projects that give AI IDs, perform credit checks, and turn compute into retail products.

These projects sound very attractive, are hard to falsify, and have forward-looking narratives.

As AI upgrades from tool to economy, these projects that sell shovels will charge the first toll regardless of market bull or bear.

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