AI agents are on a shopping spree: Total payments on Base blockchain eclipse 138 million, Chainalysis finds

The field of agentic commerce, which involves AI agents carrying out Internet transactions, is rapidly expanding, with crypto playing a significant role in this boom, according to a recent report from blockchain analytics platform Chainalysis. Developers are increasingly granting AI agents their own budgets to purchase necessary computing power, live web data, and code tools for task completion.

Over the past 15 months, this trend has seen substantial growth. On Base, a Coinbase-incubated blockchain, cumulative payments through the x402 protocol—enabling bots to automatically pay for online services using crypto—have surged from around 1,500 in mid-2025 to over 138 million by the third quarter of 2026. In practice, agentic commerce involves providing an AI bot with a budget: a developer funds the bot's wallet with stablecoins, and the bot pays for services as it works without needing human approval for each purchase.

More than 87% of these payments were for less than 10 cents, highlighting the cost-effectiveness of blockchains for small transactions. Eric Jardine, head of research at Chainalysis, explained that blockchains offer a perfect combination of speed and low costs, making them ideal for AI-to-AI commerce. The trend is expected to be exponential, driven by network effects as more online platforms adopt payments from AI agents, further amplifying activity and engagement.