Awakening the code that has been dormant for 26 years: Is the x402 protocol a technological singularity or a Meme frenzy?

Author: Lacie, Researcher at Bitget Wallet

1. Introduction: The “Payment Gap” Between Web2 and Web3

The current digital ecosystem is being torn apart by the inherent opposition between Web2 and Web3. On one hand, the convenient payments of Web2 (such as Apple Pay and WeChat Pay) are firmly locked within “walled gardens” controlled by centralized platforms and regional boundaries; on the other hand, Web3 promises a globally open, permissionless financial future but has become a “technological island” that mainstream users are hesitant to explore due to its extreme price volatility and complex user experience.

The gap between “convenience” and “openness” has long burdened Web3 with labels of being “difficult to implement” and “speculative.” Against this backdrop, an open protocol called x402 has entered the public eye. Its proposed solution is quite innovative: not to create something entirely new, but to activate a dormant foundational internet standard—HTTP 402 (Payment Required)—which has been unused for 26 years.

Figure: x402 Official Website Homepage Introduction

Source: x402 Official Website

Can this “re-activation” of the internet protocol standard become the key to bridging the aforementioned gap? Does it herald the emergence of a native, open Web payment layer that will fundamentally reshape the way value flows on the internet? Bitget Wallet will provide an in-depth analysis of this in the following article.

2. The Delayed Explosion: What is x402 and Why Is It Only Now “Going Viral”?

x402 is an open protocol led by Coinbase, developed and open-sourced in May 2025. Its core goal is to revive the long-unused HTTP 402 status code and transform it into a native, permissionless payment mechanism on the internet, ultimately establishing a channel between Web2 applications and Web3 value networks.

Interestingly, x402 was launched as early as May but only gained sudden popularity after five months of silence. In fact, the 402 status code itself is not a new invention in the crypto world; it is a reserved code in the HTTP protocol from the 1990s.

So why has a “legacy standard” and a “not-so-new” protocol only recently sparked widespread discussion? The table below summarizes key milestones from the birth of x402 to its recent surge, helping us understand the “delayed explosion” behind this phenomenon.

Table: Timeline of x402’s Birth and Adoption (as of October 28, 2025)

Source: Compiled by Bitget Wallet from public data (including trading data from x402scan)

As shown in the timeline above, the evolution of x402 reveals several key facts:

• First, x402 is a modern application of the HTTP 402 status code from 1999, which was long dormant due to a lack of practical use cases.
• Second, the x402 protocol was initiated by Coinbase and quickly gained support and integration from Web2 giants like Google, Cloudflare, and Visa within a few months.
• Third, although the protocol has been available for months, its recent “going viral” was driven by meme coins that surged by riding the x402 concept.

In summary, the current popularity of x402 results from a combination of a technological vision (AI agent payments) and speculative hype (meme-driven). But beyond market noise, we should focus on its technical core—how does it actually work?

3. Unlocking and Internalizing: How Does x402 Activate the Dormant HTTP 402?

To understand x402, we need to look back to the 1990s. The internet transmits information between clients and servers via the HTTP protocol (HyperText Transfer Protocol). HTTP defines a series of response status codes (HTTP Response Status Codes), representing specific functions, such as the well-known “404 Not Found” or “200 OK.”

Table: Summary of HTTP Status Codes

Source: Compiled by Bitget Wallet

Within this extensive code system, the 402 (Payment Required) status code is particularly special. It was originally designed to propose a protocol-native micro-payment method, aiming for “seamless integration like loading images”—instant payments without intermediaries or delays. However, as the internet economy shifted toward advertising, platforms, and complex credit card forms, the concept behind 402 was shelved, and the standard was never widely adopted.

The emergence of x402 is precisely to “unseal” the value of the 402 status code. Its workflow is logically quite elegant:

• When a user requests a paid resource, the server no longer returns a redirect instruction (guiding to a subscription page), but instead responds with a 402 status code. This response contains all the key information needed to complete the payment: recipient address, payment amount, supported blockchain networks (such as Base, Polygon), and currency type (like USDC).
• Clients supporting x402 (such as browser plugins or Web3 wallets) that detect this 402 response will automatically translate it into a payment prompt, which the user can confirm with a click. The wallet then completes the stablecoin payment via an efficient Layer 2 network, and upon transaction confirmation, notifies the server. The server verifies receipt and immediately unlocks the content for the user.

Figure: x402 Workflow Diagram

Source: Compiled by Bitget Wallet

This entire process internalizes payment into the HTTP protocol, making it as natural as loading an image or visiting a non-existent page—becoming a native interaction within browsers. Essentially, it embeds a native “value settlement” function into the internet’s most fundamental communication layer, enriching the underlying internet transmission protocol that has been in use for over 20 years.

4. The Right Moment: Why Now?

A reasonable question is: since the HTTP 402 standard has existed for 26 years, why has it only now, through x402, truly found an implementation opportunity? The answer lies in the simultaneous presence of supply, demand, and catalysts.

First, on the demand side, there is an explosive growth of the “machine economy,” exemplified by AI agents. AI requires autonomous, high-frequency calls to other AI or API services and data. This machine-to-machine (M2M) automation and cross-platform micro-payments cannot be supported by traditional credit card systems. x402 embeds payments into HTTP requests, perfectly meeting the need for fine-grained, API-based billing.

Second, on the supply side, the underlying infrastructure of Web3 has matured significantly. When the 402 standard was conceived, the “digital cash track” was missing. Today, Layer 2 solutions, high-performance public chains, and widely circulated stablecoins have filled this gap. Their fast confirmation times (seconds) and low costs make native internet micro-payments economically feasible.

Finally, the key catalysts include major industry players. Coinbase open-sourced the protocol specification, while Google and Visa endorsed it, and infrastructure giants like Cloudflare co-founded the x402 Foundation. These combined efforts aim to promote x402 as a new “open internet standard,” greatly lowering integration barriers and accelerating ecosystem development.

It is precisely at this intersection of technological readiness (supply) and demand (AI), supported by industry giants (catalysts), that x402 has seized the opportunity to turn a dormant idea into a practical application.

5. Singularity and Reefs: The Imagination Space and Three Challenges of x402

As described in the x402 white paper (see diagram below): the most direct application of the x402 protocol is to open the “machine economy” door for AI agents. In the future, AI intelligences will undoubtedly become main participants in the internet. x402, as a native, programmable payment protocol, naturally fits the M2M (machine-to-machine) economic needs. It allows an AI agent to autonomously call another AI’s API service and automatically pay a small fee (e.g., 0.0x dollars) via x402, without human pre-funding, greatly reducing friction between services.

Figure: Comparison of Existing Agent Payment Processes and x402 Per-Call Payment

Source: x402 White Paper

Its deeper significance lies in: x402 enables a single HTTP request to carry both “data transfer” and “value transfer” attributes simultaneously. This is a true integration of “value” into the information protocol established at the dawn of the internet, promising to revolutionize the traditional Web system that has been in place for over 20 years.

At the same time, this may also answer a long-standing pain point in Web3: how can encryption empower the physical world and change the world? For a long time, the encryption world has been criticized for lacking truly mainstream applications. x402 could become a singularity—it’s not about reinventing the wheel but about injecting Web3’s value settlement capability into the vast Web2 ecosystem, serving as a genuine bridge connecting the two worlds. This is the fundamental logic behind why the protocol is so widely discussed and pursued.

However, behind this optimistic vision, x402 also faces significant challenges.

First, internal concerns within the HTTP protocol itself. The 402 status code remains an “unstandardized” reserved code. As MDN Web Docs states, it is “reserved but undefined,” meaning it has not been fully adopted by mainstream Web standards, which poses compatibility issues at the protocol level. Currently, x402 implementations largely rely on custom HTTP headers like X-PAYMENT rather than the official 402 status code, casting a shadow over its long-term standardization.

Figure: HTTP 402 Status Code Marked as Compatibility Issue in Developer Documentation

Source: MDN Web Docs

Second, the attitude of traditional internet giants remains to be seen. Although companies like Google have announced support within AI frameworks, the core idea of x402—bypassing platforms for peer-to-peer payments—stands in opposition to the current dominant “walled garden” and commission-based revenue models. The integration of x402 with AI agents resembles a challenge to the existing internet ecosystem—whether industry giants will genuinely embrace or merely exploit it remains uncertain.

Finally, the most cautionary concern is the potential for speculative bubbles. Since x402 itself has no issued tokens, all associated tokens (like PING) are experimental meme projects. While meme hype has boosted x402’s visibility, it also raises the question: could this movement fall back into a “speculative narrative” bubble, causing a false prosperity and damaging genuine technological progress when the bubble bursts? This is a persistent dilemma in the crypto world. (The diagram below shows the x402 ecosystem map.)

Figure: x402 Ecosystem Overview

Source: X @henloitsjoyce

6. Conclusion: Beyond the Noise, What Is the Value?

x402 offers a highly pragmatic solution for AI agent payments—it does not require users to abandon the existing internet but seeks to upgrade the core protocol with a “payment” feature. Looking back at its development, it’s quite ironic that the real reason x402 “went viral” was not its ingenious technical design but the speculative frenzy surrounding meme coins in late October. This suggests that many current analyses of x402’s disruptive potential are based on “seeing the bubble first, then deducing its significance.”

The current hype around x402 is more driven by speculative narratives than technological breakthroughs. This raises a core question: Is x402 a milestone for the integration of Web3 and Web2, a true singularity pushing the internet into a “value layer,” or merely a lucky catch for the crypto market seeking the next “hundredfold narrative”?

The answer remains to be seen over time. But regardless, the concept of a “native HTTP value layer” pointed out by x402 has already provided a profound direction for empowering Web2 with Web3. Its forward-looking thinking about future forms holds a value far greater than the temporary market noise.