Cardano joins Solana, XRP Ledger in race to power AI agent payments

Cardano has been added to the official x402 software kit, letting developers build apps and AI agents that pay for online services with $ADA or tokens issued on the network, the Cardano Foundation said. The initial release supports TypeScript, with Python planned next, and the facilitator completed a real transaction on Cardano's pre-production network but has not yet run on mainnet. Cardano joins Solana, the $XRP Ledger and several Ethereum-compatible networks in supporting x402, the standard Coinbase created in 2025 and contributed to a Linux Foundation-backed organization whose members include Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, Google and Amazon Web Services.

Cardano has been added to the official x402 software kit, giving developers the code needed to let an app or AI agent pay for an online service using $ADA or tokens issued on the network. x402 turns the web’s largely unused “402 Payment Required” response into a checkout built directly into an internet request. A service sends back its price and payment instructions, the agent signs a payment and receives the requested data or computing power after the transaction is verified. That means an agent preparing a report could buy a single dataset when it needs it, without a person opening an account, entering card details or paying for a monthly subscription. Coinbase created x402 in 2025 before contributing it to a Linux Foundation-backed organization whose members include Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, Google and Amazon Web Services. Solana, the $XRP Ledger and several Ethereum-compatible networks already support the standard. Cardano Foundation engineers began with a specification accepted in June, then built the client and server software needed to request payments alongside a so-called facilitator that verifies and submits them. The initial release supports TypeScript, with Python planned next. The facilitator’s documentation says it completed a real transaction on Cardano’s pre-production network but has not yet been run on mainnet. Developers can begin integrating Cardano, but the release does not show agents already paying for commercial services with $ADA at scale. Cardano is joining the same race as Solana and $XRP Ledger — of getting its assets installed wherever developers eventually choose to build machine payments. Read More: Ripple wants AI agents to pay in $XRP and RLUSD. The market is still mostly USDC