NEW DELHI: Connectivity giant Cloudflare and crypto exchange Coinbase have joined forces to establish the x402 Foundation, a new initiative aimed at creating an open Internet standard for digital payments.

The foundation’s name draws from the long-standing HTTP 402 “Payment Required” response code, now being reimagined for the AI and agentic web era. Both companies say a consistent, open protocol is needed to allow seamless transactions across geographies, currencies, and methods—without any single entity holding control.

The x402 Foundation’s mission is to define a uniform framework for “Internet-native money.” This could make it simpler for developers to charge for API usage, creators to monetize content, and autonomous agents to execute payments.

Cloudflare has been exploring 402’s a

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