XRP Ledger Surpasses 11.9 Million x402 Payments

The XRP Ledger has reached a milestone of nearly 12 million x402 payments, largely driven by AI agents purchasing computing, data, and other online services. According to J. Ayo Akinyele, head of engineering at RippleX, the blockchain development arm of Ripple, this growth is evidence of a broader role for blockchain settlement.

Since Akinyele reported the 10 million milestone on October 1, the number of x402 payments has increased to 11,965,947, with a seven-day average of 525,618 payments per day. The XRP Ledger is becoming increasingly important infrastructure for the 'machine economy,' as Akinyele put it.

The x402 payment protocol allows software to pay for online access, and AI agents are using it to purchase digital services such as data and financial offerings. These purchases can be made using XRP or Ripple USD (RLUSD), a dollar-backed stablecoin.

The expansion of available services includes financial data, risk, and credit, which can be accessed through application programming interfaces. Ripple describes the settlement process as taking three to five seconds and having predictable transaction costs, making it suitable for automated commerce.