Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE: NET), the leading connectivity cloud company, today announced its intention to create the x402 Foundation, in collaboration with Coinbase, to further develop an open Internet standard for digital payments. The x402 Foundation will help create a new standard to simplify the process of sending and receiving payments online for website owners, developers, and content creators worldwide. Soon, creators and developers will have access to an open, flexible standard that will empower them to communicate payment requests and responses — regardless of geography, currency, or payment method.
The Internet is in need of a simple way for developers to monetize APIs, model context protocols, agents, and more – the new technologies that will define the Internet in the same way apps and mobile did in the previous decade. While the 402 “Payment Required” HTTP response has been in existence for decades, a lack of standardization has prevented its widespread adoption. Traditional payment systems are complex, slow, and limited by geography and currency, which has hindered the adoption of micropayments. A standardized protocol for Internet-native payments will facilitate easier transactions for parties, eliminating geographic, currency, and formatting differences.
“Coinbase deserves immense credit for starting the work on the x402 protocol, and we’re excited to partner with them on our shared vision for a neutral foundation,” said Matthew Prince, co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare. “The Internet’s core protocols have always been driven by independent governance, which is why we’re proud to work with Coinbase to ensure x402 has the same path, given its likelihood to become a core protocol for agentic commerce.”
“Coinbase has been exploring Internet payment standards since 2015, and the technology is finally here,” said Erik Reppel, creator of x402 and Head of Engineering for Coinbase Developer Platform. “Agentic commerce is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to rethink how value moves online. The x402 Foundation will help lay the groundwork to make it happen.”
The x402 Foundation aims to establish a consistent, open standard for “Internet-native money.” The goal is to provide a standardized method for communicating payment requests and responses, making it easier for parties to send and receive payments regardless of their location, the currency used, or the payment method (which may include credit cards, cryptocurrency, or other methods).
A standardized format will enable anyone who wants to monetize something on the Internet – including developers charging for API access, creators charging for access to content, or an agent paying for something autonomously – to do so easily. Standardization ensures that anyone receiving a 402 “payment required” response can easily interpret the request.
