{"slug": "block-brings-bitcoin-lightning-payments-to-x402-for-ai-agents", "title": "Block brings Bitcoin Lightning payments to x402 for AI agents", "summary": "Block has joined the x402 Foundation and added Bitcoin Lightning support to the x402 payment protocol, expanding its push into payments for AI agents. Steve Lee, head of Block's Bitcoin development initiative Spiral, said \"Bringing Lightning to x402 is a concrete step toward making Bitcoin everyday money for people and the agents acting on their behalf.\" The x402 Foundation, which launched in April under the Linux Foundation, is also backed by Google, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, Coinbase and the Solana Foundation.", "body_md": "Block has joined the x402 Foundation and added Bitcoin Lightning support to the payment protocol as the company expands its push into payments for AI agents.\n\nBlock on Thursday said Lightning is suited to the low-cost, high-volume payments that agentic commerce will depend on.\n\n“Bringing Lightning to x402 is a concrete step toward making Bitcoin everyday money for people and the agents acting on their behalf, and we’re excited to help the industry build on it,” said Steve Lee, head of Block’s Bitcoin development initiative Spiral.\n\nx402 is an open payment standard that enables AI agents and web services to autonomously pay for API access, data and digital services.\n\nBlock joins Google, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services and crypto companies including Coinbase and the Solana Foundation in backing the x402 Foundation, which launched in April under the Linux Foundation.\n\nThe move builds on Block’s participation in the Universal Commerce Protocol, an effort to enable AI-driven commerce for small businesses, according to the company’s announcement.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/block-brings-bitcoin-lightning-payments-to-x402-for-ai-agents", "canonical_source": "https://cryptonews.net/news/market/33493391/", "published_at": "2026-09-25 02:39:00+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-09-25 02:59:08.182940+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-agents", "agent-protocols", "artificial-intelligence"], "entities": ["Block", "x402 Foundation", "Bitcoin Lightning", "Steve Lee", "Spiral", "Linux Foundation", "Google", "Coinbase"], "also_reported_by": [], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/block-brings-bitcoin-lightning-payments-to-x402-for-ai-agents", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/block-brings-bitcoin-lightning-payments-to-x402-for-ai-agents.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/block-brings-bitcoin-lightning-payments-to-x402-for-ai-agents.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/block-brings-bitcoin-lightning-payments-to-x402-for-ai-agents.jsonld"}}