Base Network is Focused on Ecosystem Growth...

Base Opens Grant Program for AI and DeFi Builders

@Base has launched a Builder Grant Program targeting developers working across high-growth sectors including AI agents, prediction markets, and tokenized equities. The initiative offers up to $5,000 in seed capital per project, alongside dedicated go-to-market and product support, for teams building exclusively on the Base network.

To qualify, teams must already have a live product that demonstrates utility in areas such as decentralized lending, yield generation, or the creation of new on-chain asset classes. The program is designed to support builders at an early but tangible stage of development, rather than those still at the concept phase.

x402 and Agentic Commerce Take Centre Stage

A key focus of the grant program is the x402 payment protocol and what Base describes as "agentic" commerce. Developed by Coinbase and named after HTTP status code 402 ("Payment Required"), x402 allows machines to pay for resources directly within web requests. The protocol is built on Base and enables machine-to-machine payments at scales traditional rails cannot support, allowing AI agents and automated systems to transact autonomously with sub-cent precision and near-instant settlement.

The grant program's prioritisation of x402 implementations reflects growing real-world traction. Over the 30 days to May 29, 2026, x402 activity on Base reached 3.1 million transactions and $1.2 million in value transferred, while sellers grew 23% and buyers grew 37%. Major technology firms have also moved quickly to adopt the standard. AWS, Coinbase, and Stripe shipped Bedrock AgentCore Payments on May 7, 2026, letting AI agents pay in USDC over x402 in 200 milliseconds.

The broader ambition behind the grant program is to formalise infrastructure for autonomous trading and machine-to-machine financial interactions on Base. Jesse Pollak, the creator of Base, has argued that agents could eventually transact more often than humans. By directing early-stage capital toward builders who are already live with working products, the network is looking to accelerate that shift from the ground up.

Sources:
Crypto Briefing: Base x402 Transaction Growth
Chainalysis: Inside x402, 100M Agentic Payments on Base
AWS: x402 and Agentic Commerce in Financial Services