For the past six months, Base has been the undisputed king of x402 micropayments. That streak is over.
Solana has overtaken Base in daily x402 transaction count, reclaiming the top spot in one of crypto’s fastest-growing payment niches.
What x402 is and why it matters
That HTTP status code has been sitting mostly unused since the early days of the internet, reserved for some vague future where the web would have native payments built in. The x402 protocol finally puts it to work.
Developed under the x402 Foundation, the protocol turns that dusty status code into an open standard for on-chain micropayments. No subscriptions, no API keys, no traditional payment rails. Just a stablecoin transaction, predominantly in USDC, triggered automatically when a service requests payment.
