The truth about AI payments: 90% of transactions are less than 1 cent, Solana dominates 90%

According to Woofun AI, AI smart payments are being viewed as a disruptive financial innovation following contactless payments, but BeInCrypto's research on the x402 protocol revealed a true picture of its underlying operation. In the early stages of implementation, this highly anticipated technology showed microscopic characteristics very different from the grand story.

Between the end of July and August 2026, the x402 agreement recorded 6.4 million payments, all under $120,000 in single payments. According to data compiled by Woofun AI, 90% of the payments were less than 1 cent, highlighting the extreme characteristics of micronization. In specific application scenarios, AI-generated cryptocurrency security assessment services are priced at 2 cents each time; Internet search services are followed by AI agents to obtain information required for tasks through successive payments; flight search services are also common. When planning a vacation, assistants first pay a small fee to search for flights and then search destination data for a fee, thus constructing a complete decision-making chain.

In terms of infrastructure, the Solana network showed absolute dominance, carrying 99.2% of transaction traffic. This concentration is more pronounced in the time dimension: in just 8 days, transactions on Solana accounted for 94.5% of all recorded payments.

Notably, the high transaction volume probably stems from a small number of active wallets rather than widespread corporate adoption. In the applicability assessment, micropayments topped the list with a score of 60.7, while AI agents in the transaction and investment category received only 39.1 points and institutional-level workflow scores as low as 12 points. Of the 12 institutional-level processes assessed, only 6 were able to complete payments within pre-set permissions, and evidence of actual application is still lacking.

Funding amounts are directly linked to risk exposure. Will Papper, AI smart payment product director at Cloudflare (NET.US), pointed out that if AI only manages $10, the spending risk is manageable; however, if the amount rises to $1,000, extreme caution is required. This point of view emphasizes the need for authority management. Businesses should refer to the full report for an in-depth evaluation before granting permission to spend on AI agents.