Cardano’s co-founder, Charles Hoskinson, has described the upcoming integration of x402 as “very big for Cardano,” marking one of the network’s most promising technological shifts in years.

Hoskinson’s comment came after a major announcement revealing the first x402 proof-of-concept memecoin mint on the Masumi network. This milestone demonstrates how the new payment standard could change blockchain automation and AI-driven transactions.

x402 is developed around the HTTP 402 “Payment Required” status code. It allows users to pay for resources via API calls without needing registration, OAuth, or complex authentication steps.

The project was initially developed by Coinbase and integrated into Google’s Agent-Payment Protocol (AP2) to enable seamless, verifiable payments between AI agents and services, thereby automating on-chain transactions in real-time.

For Cardano, this means the blockchain could evolve into a financial backbone for the AI agent economy, facilitating trustless microtransactions at scale.

The proof-of-concept demo walks users through the payment process. When a visitor interacts with the demo page, it triggers a “402: Payment Required” message. Users can then connect their wallets, construct the payment, and once it’s confirmed on-chain, gain access to the previously locked resources, in this case, minting memecoins.

While the demo itself is not a real token launch, it offers a glimpse into how future dApps might use x402 for automated access payments.

According to developer Patrick Tobler, the team is now drafting the x402 standard for both Cardano and Masumi to integrate it directly with Masumi smart contracts.

This approach goes beyond address-to-address transfers to creating a more powerful and flexible payment infrastructure.

Industry analysts see x402’s arrival as a major catalyst for Cardano’s ecosystem. Reports indicate that the protocol has already processed nearly 500,000 transactions within a week and is being adopted by tech leaders such as Google, AWS, and Visa.

Analysts are also eyeing a bullish trend for ADA, with projections suggesting a potential climb to $1.20 by early 2026 if momentum holds.