The Linux Foundation announced that the x402 payment protocol is transitioning to open-source software, with its further development to be carried out with the participation of a dedicated foundation.
The x402 protocol will become an open standard under the governance of the Linux Foundation. The nonprofit organization introduced the x402 Foundation, an independent entity established to advance the technology.
A wide range of participants from various industries already joined the new foundation, including Amazon Web Services, Google, Microsoft, Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Stripe, Shopify, the Solana Foundation, Polygon Labs, and others. In total, support from more than 20 major tech companies was announced.
The x402 protocol, developed by Coinbase with contributions from Cloudflare and Stripe, enables payments to be embedded directly into web interactions. The solution is designed for use in APIs, applications, and AI-driven systems, where value exchange happens automatically.
The main goal is to eliminate fragmentation in internet payment infrastructure. Unlike existing solutions, x402 offers a unified standard that operates over HTTP and allows applications and AI agents to conduct transactions as easily as they exchange data.
The protocol supports both traditional currencies and digital assets and can operate across multiple blockchains and payment systems. This enables businesses to implement automated payments without fully overhauling their financial infrastructure.
The Linux Foundation emphasizes that the x402 Foundation will operate under an open governance model, meaning no single company will control the standard. Participation in the project is open to developers, startups, and corporations worldwide.
The Linux Foundation is a leading international organization supporting collaborative projects in open-source software, hardware, standards, and data. It already oversees many major technological initiatives shaping global digital infrastructure, including Linux, Kubernetes, OpenStack, PyTorch, OpenSearch, and others.
In 2025, Coinbase not only introduced the x402 protocol but also launched the Payments MCP platform based on it, enabling large language models (LLM) to use crypto infrastructure to execute payments.
