TLDR
- Block has joined the x402 Foundation and added Bitcoin Lightning support to the open payment protocol.
- x402 lets AI agents automatically pay for APIs, data and digital services using HTTP 402 responses.
- A September 23 code commit added Lightning support ahead of Block’s official announcement.
- x402 reported 75.41 million transactions and $24.24 million in volume over a recent 30 day period.
- Other networks like Cardano, Casper and XRP Ledger have also added support for the protocol.
Block has joined the x402 Foundation and contributed Bitcoin Lightning support to the payment protocol used by AI agents and web services.
Block has joined the x402 Foundation, an open standard for agentic payments, to help build the rails that will let people, businesses, and agents pay and get paid.
We’ve also contributed Bitcoin Lightning payments, which is purpose-built for the instant, low-cost, high-volume…
— Block (@blocks) September 24, 2026
The company announced the move on September 24. It said Lightning fits the kind of payments that AI agents will need, ones that are low cost, fast and repeated often.
Steve Lee leads Block’s Bitcoin development initiative, called Spiral. He said Lightning is a step toward making Bitcoin usable as everyday money for both people and the agents acting on their behalf.
What x402 Does
x402 is an open payment standard. Coinbase created it before handing it over to the Linux Foundation.
The protocol uses the HTTP 402 “Payment Required” response. This lets a server ask for payment when an AI agent tries to access an API, dataset or other digital service.
The agent then pays and repeats its request with proof of payment attached. This all happens automatically, without a person clicking through a checkout page.
A public code repository shows the Lightning addition was already in progress before Block’s announcement. A commit dated September 23 added what developers called “exact Lightning on lnbtc,” a reference to the network identifier used for the feature.
Block did not release separate numbers for Lightning transactions, merchants using it, or AI agent activity tied to the new feature. The x402 Foundation’s website reports its own overall totals. It cites 75.41 million transactions, $24.24 million in volume, 94,060 buyers and 22,000 sellers over the past 30 days. These numbers cover all of x402, not just the new Lightning option.
Stablecoins Still Lead Payment Volume
Most of the payment activity on x402 so far has used stablecoins rather than Bitcoin. Circle has said USDC made up 99.3 percent of x402 payment volume in its most recent measured quarter.
Lightning gives developers a way to settle payments directly in Bitcoin instead of a dollar linked token. Erik Reppel, who created x402 and sits on its Technical Steering Committee, said the protocol was built so new networks could be added without favoring any single payment rail.
Block joins a growing list of companies backing the x402 Foundation. The list includes Google, Amazon Web Services, Coinbase, Mastercard, Visa, Stripe, Circle, Ripple, Shopify and the Solana Foundation.
Microsoft was listed as an early supporter when the Foundation launched in April. It was not named among the 40 organizations on the Foundation’s official operational member list published in July.
Block has other work in this space already. It has contributed to an open source AI agent called goose, helped start the Agentic AI Foundation, and taken part in the Universal Commerce Protocol project led by Google.
Other companies have been adding x402 support to different blockchain networks in recent weeks. Support reached Cardano’s software stack with an early release built for testing rather than live use.
Casper’s mainnet already uses an x402 setup that lets AI agents pay for online services. The XRP Ledger passed one million x402 transactions by July, with Ripple backed t54.ai building tools for AI projects on that network.
Amazon Bedrock AgentCore added Coinbase’s x402 system for USDC payments, letting business AI agents pay for services under enterprise spending rules. The Graph also uses x402, letting developers buy individual blockchain data queries instead of paying for a full subscription.
Block has not given a date for bringing Lightning based x402 payments into consumer products like Square, Cash App or Bitkey. The company says it will keep contributing to Lightning development and take part in x402 Foundation working groups going forward.
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