Circle & OpenMind Launch x402 Payments: Autonomous Machines Now Handle Their Own Crypto Transactions
Forget human oversight—the next wave of commerce is happening between machines. Circle, the powerhouse behind the USDC stablecoin, just teamed up with OpenMind to roll out x402, a payments protocol built specifically for autonomous devices. This isn't just an upgrade; it's a fundamental shift in how value moves in a digitized world.
What x402 Actually Does
Think of x402 as a universal financial language for robots, drones, and smart infrastructure. It allows machines to initiate, verify, and settle payments with each other in real-time, using digital currencies like USDC. Need a delivery drone to pay a charging station? A sensor to buy its own bandwidth? x402 handles it—cutting out intermediaries and slashing transaction times from days to seconds.
Why This Changes the Game
This move directly plugs the growing Internet of Things (IoT) into the global financial rails. It enables micro-transactions at a scale and speed traditional finance can't touch. For developers and businesses, it unlocks new economic models: pay-per-use services, dynamic resource allocation, and truly autonomous supply chains that manage their own cash flow.
The Finance Angle (With a Dash of Cynicism)
While bankers debate legacy system upgrades, crypto infrastructure is quietly building the payment layer for the next industrial revolution. x402 bypasses the friction—and the fees—of the old guard, proving once again that innovation in finance isn't coming from a boardroom; it's being coded into the machines themselves. A sobering thought for any institution still betting on a 20th-century playbook.
The era of passive machines is over. With x402, they're not just working—they're earning and spending.
Circle builds chain-agnostic payment protocol
Circle is working toward its Gateway tool, offering instant transfers for cross-chain USDC transactions.
The stablecoin issuer is also working on an x402 ecosystem for micropayments, using the Gateway technology. Circle will offer USDC to both EVM and non-EVM chains, with a special focus on Solana. The company will act as a facilitator of token transfers, boosting reliability to offer true agent-to-agent payments.
‘Circle expects that agentic payments using x402 will increase in popularity, and in particular that x402 may become an attractive protocol for high-throughput applications such as agents performing DEEP research tasks and paying for content as they go,’ the company announced.
Agentic payments are still an experimental space, as competitors continue to work toward a common standard. Google Cloud is also working toward a common standard, joining forces with multiple crypto-native companies.
OpenMind works toward autonomous robots
OpenMind works not only toward AI generation, but also aims to implement its tools through autonomous robots. The company is still in its early stages and has yet to demonstrate the actual usage of USDC.
OpenMind has attracted an undisclosed seed round led by Amber Group, and another $20M round led by Pantera Capital, raised in August 2025. Pi Network has also invested in the AI and robotics company for an undisclosed sum.
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