Stripe just became the best crypto bank on earth. And they did it with one update. Coinbase rewrote the internet’s payment layer. Tether goes all-in on AI. And Paul Tudor Jones says “there’s a 10% chance AI wipes out half of us” (watch this!).
Big week. Let’s unpack it.
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Coinbase launched a new payments standard (x402), together with Amazon Web Services (AWS), Anthropic, Circle and NEAR Protocol. It’s a new open protocol that lets AI agents pay for services over the internet using stablecoins. It revives HTTP 402, the long-unused status code for “Payment Required,” giving it new life as an embedded internet-native payment rail. Think of it as Stripe meets REST APIs, built for machine-to-machine transactions. So what? This could reshape how APIs, SaaS tools, and data services are monetised and slash the 2-3% fees and 48-hour delays of legacy rails. x402 is a huge step for stablecoins and the future of the internet. RELEASE, GO DEEPER
Tether announced Tether AI – a peer-to-peer network for billions of agents. Think of it as a modular, open-source AI runtime that runs anywhere with no API keys and transacts natively in USDT + Bitcoin. Launching Q1 2025, Tether AI lets users and AI agents transact directly on a decentralised, open-source system, bypassing 2-3% legacy fees and cloud giants. It’s part of a broader strategy to decentralise AI infra, starting with tools like AI Translate and wallet assistants. So what? This is NOT a one-off announcement. This is a multi-year, strategic effort to build a crypto-AI tech stack. The next big thing for blockchain won't be DeFi. It will be AI. RELEASE, GO DEEPER
