The strategic position of Facilitator in the Agent economy: the value implications from protocol to ecosystem

In the development of agentic commerce, a key role is emerging — the Facilitator. This seemingly technical concept actually signifies who will control the underlying architecture of the future machine economy. When billions of payment transactions are automatically completed in the background by AI agents, what does the emergence of the Facilitator mean? It indicates a shift from a single-track payment system to a diversified ecosystem, and it also signifies that Web3-native settlement capabilities are now establishing a competitive foundation on par with traditional financial systems.

Agentic commerce refers to a full-stack business system where AI agents autonomously handle service discovery, credibility assessment, order creation, payment authorization, and final settlement. In this system, agents no longer rely on human step-by-step operations or manual input but instead collaborate, place orders, pay, and fulfill across platforms and systems, forming an autonomous machine-to-machine (M2M) commercial loop. Payment is the core hub that keeps this entire process running.

Dual-Track Payment Ecosystem and the Evolution of the Facilitator Role

In agentic commerce, the real-world merchant network is the largest value scenario. Regardless of how AI agents evolve, traditional fiat payment systems (Stripe, Visa, Mastercard, bank transfers) and the rapidly growing stablecoin systems (USDC, etc.) will coexist long-term, forming the foundation of agentic commerce. However, the operational logics of these two tracks are entirely different.

Traditional fiat payments are primarily dominated by established institutions like Stripe and PayPal, completing transactions through card networks and banking transfer systems. In the short term, mainstream consumer and enterprise procurement will continue to be led by this system. This is because, in highly regulated industries such as healthcare, aviation, e-commerce, government, and utilities, fiat payments have natural compliance advantages and established merchant habits.

The scaling barriers for stablecoins in real-world commerce are not technical but regulatory, accounting, and dispute resolution challenges. Since 2025, this landscape is changing—U.S. stablecoin legislation has gained bipartisan consensus, Hong Kong and Singapore have implemented stablecoin licensing frameworks, and the EU’s MiCA regulation has come into effect. Actions like Stripe supporting USDC and PayPal launching PYUSD mark mainstream financial acceptance of stablecoins.

A true shift occurs in specific scenarios: digital content, cross-border payments, Web3-native services, and the machine economy (M2M/IoT/Agents). In these contexts, the inefficiencies and cost disadvantages of traditional payment systems are glaring. High-frequency micro-payments, instant cross-border settlements, and accountless automatic payments are core needs of the agent economy and the most competitive stage for stablecoin systems.

The Facilitator is the key coordinator bridging these two tracks.

From Protocol Stack to Ecosystem Layering: Strategic Positioning of the Facilitator

The protocol stack of agentic commerce consists of six layers, forming a complete machine business chain from capability discovery to payment delivery. Among them, the A2A Catalog and MCP Registry handle capability discovery; ERC-8004 provides on-chain verifiable identity and reputation; ACP and AP2 are responsible for structured order placement and authorization commands. The payment layer runs in parallel with traditional fiat (AP2) and stablecoin (x402) tracks.

The advent of the Facilitator signifies a fundamental change in payment logic. Under the x402 protocol framework, the Facilitator is no longer just a “payment gateway” but acts as middleware connecting Web2 APIs with Web3 settlement layers. They verify payment authorizations, submit and track on-chain transactions, generate auditable settlement proofs, and handle replay prevention, timeouts, multi-chain compatibility, and basic compliance checks.

What does this role imply? It means controlling traffic entry points and settlement fee collection rights. Coinbase Facilitator (CDP), with zero fees on the Base mainnet and built-in OFAC/KYT checks, has established itself as a trusted enterprise-level executor. PayAI Facilitator, with the broadest multi-chain coverage and fastest growth, is the most used multi-chain execution layer in the ecosystem. Daydreams, by integrating payment execution with LLM inference routing, is becoming the third major force within the x402 ecosystem.

Most existing Facilitators are still in testing or small demo phases. While they control transaction flows, they mostly lack defensible moats in critical capabilities like identity, billing, risk control, multi-chain stability, and compliance, exhibiting low barriers to entry and high homogeneity.

The Three-Layer Ecosystem Structure and the Value Capture Path of Facilitators

Currently, the Web3 ecosystem of agentic commerce can be divided into three layers, with Facilitators occupying different positions:

Business Payment Layer (L3): Projects like Skyfire, Payman, Catena Labs, Nevermined. They provide payment abstraction, SDK integration, credit and permission governance, human approval, and compliance access—some connect with traditional finance. Skyfire, with KYA+Pay, abstracts identity verification and payment authorization into AI-usable JWT tokens. Payman offers capabilities like Wallet, Payee, Policy, Approval to build a governable, auditable fund permission layer for AI. Catena Labs focuses on AI-native financial institutions, establishing unified identity and payment protocols via ACK-ID and ACK-Pay. Nevermined targets AI usage-based economic models, offering automated metering, per-use billing, revenue sharing, and auditing.

The real value here isn’t in connecting to fiat payments—those are handled by Stripe, Circle, etc.—but in solving machine-native needs that traditional finance cannot cover: identity mapping, permission governance, programmable risk control, responsibility attribution, and M2M micro-payments. Whoever becomes a trusted AI financial steward for enterprises gains a competitive advantage at this layer.

Native Payment Protocol Layer (L2): Comprising protocols like x402, Virtual ACP, and their ecosystems. x402, proposed by Coinbase, is an open standard for programmable on-chain payment handshake, transforming HTTP 402 Payment Required into a programmable payment protocol. It enables APIs and AI agents to perform frictionless, accountless, on-demand on-chain settlements without credit cards or API keys.

In the x402 ecosystem, the Facilitator is the only entity executing on-chain payments, making it closest to “protocol-level revenue.” They verify payment authorizations, submit and track transactions, and generate auditable settlement proofs. Unlike clients or API services that only handle HTTP requests, Facilitators are the ultimate clearing point for all M2M/A2A transactions, controlling flow entry and settlement fees, thus central to value capture in the agent economy.

Most current Facilitators are still early-stage, lightweight “payment executors.” Leading institutions like Coinbase have a significant advantage with stability and compliance. Mid- and long-tail projects (Dexter, Virtuals Protocol, OpenX402, CodeNut, etc.) have much lower transaction volumes, seller, and buyer counts compared to top players.

Long-term, x402 remains an interface layer. The real competitive advantage will come from platforms that build identity, billing, risk management, and compliance systems on top of settlement capabilities. This means the ultimate competition will shift to “Facilitator + X” service layers—building verifiable service directories, reputation systems, arbitration, risk control, and treasury management—adding high-margin services and avoiding marginalization.

Infrastructure Layer (L1): Comprising Ethereum, Base, Solana, Kite AI, and others. Mainstream public chains provide core execution environments, account systems, state machines, and security. Kite AI, as a representative “agent-native L1,” leverages the SPACE framework (Stablecoin-native, Programmable constraints, Agent-first authentication, Compliance auditing, Economically feasible micro-payments) with a three-layer key system (Root→Agent→Session) for fine-grained risk isolation. AIsaNet integrates x402 and L402 protocols, serving as a micro-payment and settlement layer for AI Agents, supporting high-frequency trading, cross-protocol coordination, settlement path selection, and routing.

The x402 Ecosystem: How Facilitators Become Payment Hubs

The x402 native payment ecosystem has a clear four-layer structure: client, server, payment execution layer (Facilitators), and blockchain settlement layer. Within this system, the strategic importance of Facilitators is already evident.

Client integration layers include thirdweb Client SDK, Nuwa AI, enabling agents or applications to initiate x402 payment requests. Currently, this layer remains in the “SDK era”—a developer tool stage. More advanced clients like browsers, OS clients, robots, IoT devices, and enterprise systems are yet to emerge, leaving significant growth potential.

Server/API providers focus on web crawling, storage, news APIs, etc. AIsa provides paid resource APIs for real AI Agents, enabling call-based, token-based, or volume-based access to data, content, compute, and third-party services, with x402 being the top in call volume. Firecrawl is the most used web parsing entry for AI Agents. Pinata offers Web3 storage infrastructure. Gloria AI supplies high-frequency real-time news and structured market signals. Neynar opens social data to Agents via x402.

The most promising growth area remains high-value APIs: financial trading, advertising, Web2 SaaS gateways, and even APIs capable of executing real-world tasks. Integrating these with x402 payments will trigger explosive demand for Facilitators.

The Facilitator layer handles on-chain deductions, verification, and settlement—acting as the core execution engine of x402. Coinbase Facilitator (CDP), with enterprise-grade trusted execution, zero fees on Base, and built-in OFAC/KYT checks, sets the standard. PayAI Facilitator, with the broadest multi-chain coverage (Solana, Polygon, Base, Avalanche, etc.), is the most used in the ecosystem. Daydreams, combining payment execution with LLM inference routing, is the fastest-growing “AI inference payment executor,” becoming the third major force in the x402 ecosystem.

Based on recent data from x402scan, a number of mid- and long-tail Facilitators/routers exist, but their transaction volumes, seller, and buyer counts are significantly lower than the top three. This indicates the market is still in the “winner-takes-all” early stage.

Final settlement points are on-chain. Although x402 itself is chain-agnostic, current data shows settlement activity mainly on Base and Solana. Base, driven by Coinbase’s official Facilitator, with USDC native and stable fees, has the largest transaction volume and seller base. Solana, supported by PayAI and others, with high throughput and low latency, is growing fastest in high-frequency inference and real-time API scenarios.

Parallel Tracks: The Future Ecosystem of Fiat and Stablecoins

What does this evolution from payment protocols to machine economy order imply?

The future payment infrastructure will bifurcate into two parallel tracks, each serving different roles. The business governance track, based on traditional fiat logic, is suitable for low-frequency, non-micro real-world transactions like procurement, SaaS subscriptions, and physical e-commerce. In this track, fiat will dominate long-term. Agents act as smarter front-ends and process coordinators, not replacements. Projects like Skyfire, Payman, Catena Labs are valuable not for their underlying payment routing (usually handled by Stripe/Circle) but for their machine governance services—addressing machine-native needs that traditional finance cannot cover. The key is becoming a trusted AI financial steward for enterprises.

The native settlement track, based on x402, is suited for high-frequency, micro-payments in M2M/A2A digital-native transactions, such as API billing and resource flow payments. x402 binds payments and resources atomically via HTTP 402 status codes. In programmable micro-payments and M2M/A2A scenarios, x402 is the most complete and practical protocol ecosystem (native HTTP + on-chain settlement), with potential to be the “Stripe for agents.”

In this track, simply integrating x402 at the client or server level does not confer a significant advantage. The real growth potential lies in upper-layer assets that foster long-term repeat usage and high-frequency calls: OS-level agent clients, robot/IoT wallets, and high-value API services (market data, GPU inference, real-world task execution). Facilitators, as protocol gateways assisting clients and servers with payment handshakes, invoice generation, and fund settlement, control flow and settlement fees, making them the closest link to “revenue” in the x402 stack.

However, this also means fierce competition is imminent. The low barriers and homogeneity of most Facilitators suggest that market concentration will accelerate. Giants with usability and compliance advantages (like Coinbase) already have a dominant position. To avoid marginalization, other participants must elevate their value—evolving from simple “payment executors” to comprehensive “Facilitator + trust layer” or “Facilitator + billing layer” service providers.

Outlook: Builders of the Machine Economy Order

Web3’s role is not to replace traditional payments but to provide the foundational capabilities for the Agent era—verifiable identities, programmable settlement, and global stablecoins. This positioning indicates that future competition will be more complex—not a simple fiat vs. stablecoin dichotomy, nor a single-track replacement narrative, but two complementary capabilities operating in parallel, each suited to different scenarios.

As billions of microtransactions are handled automatically by agents in the background, those protocols and companies that first offer trust, coordination, and optimization capabilities will become the core infrastructure of the next-generation global commerce. In this process, the Facilitator’s evolution from a mere “payment executor” to an “economic coordinator” signifies a strategic importance far beyond technology. Agentic commerce is not just about payment optimization but about reconstructing the machine economy order. Facilitators are the most critical infrastructure in this reconstruction.