Multiple parties enter the battlefield, and the smoke of conflict gradually rises at x402.

Article by: Haotian

The scent of war in the x402 track is already faintly detectable:

1. The Launchpad battle is about to begin. @pingobserver personally took the stage to create suspense around c402 Market, aiming to empower $PING tokens with positive flywheel effects, but this is just the beginning of the battle.

x420 Dev abandoned the somewhat shaky launch method and actively embraced the innovative “Pay to X” concept proposed by xEcho @agileadtodark; @memeputer

It seems that a single developer has standardized multiple scenarios such as shopping, NFTs, and trading through Agent + Pay protocols. Similar projects include @awenetwork_ai… In the future, many differentiated launchpads will emerge, challenging the Bounding Curve, and exploring fair, fun, and practical token launch methods.

2. Competition in the Facilitator track is also fierce. $PAYAI token migration is underway, the Solana x402 hackathon is in full swing, and @star_okx has entered the x402 track with the xlayer ecosystem. The Base ecosystem is also expanding globally with Coinbase CDP; @MetisL2 has introduced GMPayer and integrated technologies like ZKP and TEE to support cross-chain autonomous payments with Agents, among others.

As always, the barrier to entry for Facilitator is low, but the battle for payment pipelines among Facilitators rivals the early DeFi aggregator and sniper pool wars, promising a prosperous multi-chain Facilitator landscape.

3. As the infrastructure role in the x402 track, Providers are usually low-profile, but they might leverage their veteran experience and comprehensive reserves to become key drivers pushing the x402 track forward. @questflow is actively advancing multi-chain x402 Facilitators and collaborating with Mantle, Xlayer, and others; $dreams once had a FDV exceeding 40M and is praised by the community as the new dragon.

Variables remain significant. I don’t think the Provider role will be the focus of recent hype, but building confidence in the x402 track requires paying close attention to what they are doing.

That’s all.

In other areas, Scanner competition is also vital. @x402scan is iterating rapidly, and 8004scan now supports ERC8004. @yq_acc has been advocating for it. Although the competition around indexers isn’t as lively, it’s crucial. As mentioned before, in an open x402 track without standards, a new “L2Beat” could emerge from Scanner.

As for the Agent application market, I won’t elaborate here. Many veteran Agents, especially @virtuals_io, are seeking new opportunities through new payment features. Meanwhile, a group of new Utility Agents, particularly in GameFi and SocialFi, seem to be brewing something. We look forward to their rapid emergence, which could open up new possibilities for Agents and expand the ceiling of their applications.