AI Agents Were Supposed to Power a New Blockchain Economy — What Went Wrong

x402 emerged as a bridge between blockchain and autonomous AI agents, promising automated on-chain payments that could kickstart an Agent Economy. On-chain data from Artemis, however, shows a steep decline: average daily x402 transactions fell from about 731,000 in December 2025 to roughly 57,000 by February 2026, a drop of more than 92% across networks such as Base, Polygon PoS, and Solana.

The sharp contraction has been driven largely by a collapse in the “Infrastructure & Utilities” segment. Activity at services like x402secure.com, agentlisa.ai, and pay.codenut.ai has fallen by over 80%, even as tools such as OpenClaw, Moltbook, and specialized agent wallets gain attention in developer communities and on social platforms; demand for agent payments has yet to materialize at scale.

Despite the weak on-chain figures, analysts point to signals that an agent-based economy could still emerge.

x402, ai agents, agent economy, on-chain payments, artemis, base, polygon, solana, agent wallets, moltbook