Recently, the x402 protocol launched by Coinbase became an overnight sensation. Not only did the related concept tokens experience a big pump, but it also gained continuous adoption or endorsement from Web2 giants such as Google, AWS, and Visa, driving its AI agent volume on the protocol to achieve a rise of over 10,000% in the past month.

Earlier this year in May, AEON launched the AI Payment protocol; in August, AEON officially collaborated with the Coinbase x402 protocol, becoming one of its first ecosystem partners and took the lead in launching the AI Payment product integrated with x402. In October, AEON announced the official release of the x402 Facilitator on the BNB Chain, closely cooperating with the BNB Chain team to advance the native x402 protocol on BNB Chain.

In this wave of autonomous AI triggered by x402, AEON is not a follower but a key infrastructure builder that has already laid the groundwork, supported by actual products and a real merchant network. How does it position itself? Can it become the underlying settlement engine driving the entire AI economy?

The explosive popularity of the x402 protocol has brought a key industry pain point to the forefront: when AI Agents can autonomously handle complex tasks, how do they "pay" for the consumption they generate in the digital and real world?

Traditional financial infrastructure is almost helpless in this regard. There are two core pain points: first, the barrier of identity verification. The existing KYC system is designed to verify natural persons, and AI agents cannot provide passports or ID cards, thus unable to open bank accounts, lacking legal identity in the traditional financial system. Secondly, the mismatch of trading models. The economic activities of AI are ultra-high frequency and small amounts, such as API calls, data purchases, or computing power leasing in milliseconds. The processing capability of traditional networks like Visa, which can handle tens of thousands of transactions per second, along with high fees and settlement cycles of several days, become completely ineffective in this scenario.