x402 protocol PING pump 18 times later, which 100x coin is next among these 7 projects?

A special golden dog was born on Base, and it is PING. Based on the cost of launching new projects and the current coin price, the profit from a successful minting is approximately 18 times. The uniqueness of PING lies in that its minting will remind people of the inscriptions from two years ago. The cost to mint one PING is about 1 dollar, and if successful, you can obtain 5,000 PING.

x402 protocol gives birth to the first 18x Gold Dog PING

A special golden dog was born on Base, and it is PING. Based on the cost of new issues and the current coin price, a successful minting yields about 18 times the return. The uniqueness of PING lies in the fact that its minting reminds people of the inscriptions from two years ago. The cost of minting one PING is about 1 dollar, and if successful, you can obtain 5,000 PING. The page for minting PING, like the inscriptions from that year, does not have an exquisite frontend page, appearing rather hardcore.

This hardcore minting experience has become the charm of the x402 protocol. It returns to the essence of “code is law” in blockchain, without flashy packaging, only pure technical implementation. For veteran players who have experienced inscription minting, this hardcore experience evokes familiar memories, while for new players, this primitive interaction method brings a sense of novelty.

The data from the past 30 days shows that PING's interface has received over 150,000 x402 transactions, amounting to approximately $140,000, far ahead of the second-ranked Questflow. This overwhelming advantage indicates that PING has become the absolute leader in the x402 protocol ecosystem. 150,000 transactions mean that at least tens of thousands of users participated in minting, and this user base provides strong community support for PING.

This is the first time in nearly half a year that the x402 protocol has been so lively and well-known. Regardless of the chain or protocol, the issuance of new assets has always been a lasting hotspot in the crypto space. The success of PING not only brought wealth to early participants but, more importantly, brought unprecedented attention to the x402 protocol. Before PING, x402 was just a niche topic within the developer community; now it has become a hotspot across the entire internet.

From the perspective of the minting experience, the workflow of the x402 protocol also explains why the minting process of PING resembles an inscription, as it requires confirmation from x402 validators. During the minting process, a large number of minting requests not only overwhelmed the minting interface repeatedly but also provided a real pressure test for the x402 protocol for the first time. Although this “stuck” experience was terrible, it also proved the strong market demand for the x402 protocol.

The Technical Nature of the x402 Protocol: HTTP 402 Blockchain Payment

x402 is an open payment protocol developed by a U.S. compliant cryptocurrency exchange that enables AI agents to autonomously complete transactions. The x402 protocol leverages the long-standing “HTTP 402 'Payment Required'” status code, which requests payment to complete API requests or load web pages. If an API request is missing payment information, x402 returns an HTTP 402 status code, prompting the client to make payment and retry the request.

The user made a request to Claude, “Using my CEX wallet, help me buy a pair of jeans on Amazon.” After receiving the request, the AI initiated a purchase request to Amazon, which then constructed a preliminary transaction that included the wallet address to be used, the chain to be used, the coin type, and the specific amount. After the AI received this, it sent the transaction to the validators of the x402 protocol to check whether the corresponding wallet had sufficient assets on the corresponding chain, whether the goods were tradable, and whether the user had confirmed authorization. Once all was completed, the amount and payment proof were sent to the merchant's address. The transaction was completed.

Overall, the HTTP 402 status code plays a “messaging” role in the protocol to indicate whether a transaction is successful. The U.S. compliant cryptocurrency exchange has built upon this status code, adding the functionality of using blockchain for payments, resulting in the x402 protocol. It sounds simple, but from the protocol flow above, there are 2 exciting aspects to look forward to.

First, the pipeline for on-chain assets to be used for actual payments has been further simplified, eliminating the need for users to convert their assets into fiat currency for consumption. Instead, they can directly use USDT, USDC, or even other on-chain assets for spending. However, the key point here is the need for large-scale deployment and sufficient merchant adoption. Any Web API or content provider (crypto or Web2) that wants to provide a low-cost, frictionless payment path for micro or usage-based transactions can integrate x402.

The second point is the AI Agent. The AI Agent, acting as a payer/receiver, is quite suitable for blockchain payments because AI Agents do not possess bank or payment app accounts through KYC like humans do. As the intelligence of AI Agents continues to improve, some novel consumption experiences or on-chain experiences are also worth looking forward to.

x402 Protocol Ecosystem 7 Major Projects In-Depth Analysis

The Ecosystem page on the official website of the x402 protocol has a summary of the current projects. If you click on each project to view it, you will feel that this protocol is still in a relatively early stage of development. There are quite a few that directly link to technical documents or jump to Github projects. Here, we have compiled some projects that already have tokens or are about to issue tokens.

Questflow: AI Agent work sorting layer, allowing multiple AI Agents to autonomously coordinate and execute tasks. In July of this year, it announced the completion of a $6.5 million seed round financing, led by cyberFund, with participation from Delphi Labs, Systemic Ventures, Eden Block, Animoca Brands, Tezos, and received a Grant from Aptos and Virtuals. There is currently no official token, but last December it jointly launched SANTA with Virtuals, an autonomous Agent cluster. SANTA currently has a market value of approximately $4.5 million.

AurraCloud: AI Agent infrastructure aimed at crypto-native applications. It can immediately host AI Agents using OpenAI-compatible APIs or MCP servers, and realize AI monetization through the on-chain x402 protocol on Base. In addition, the project also provided x402 verification services earlier this month. The token $AURA is launched via Virtuals and currently has a market value of approximately 1.6 million USD.

Meridian: Incubated by uOS, it provides multi-chain settlement and custody services for the x402 protocol. The token $MRDN currently has a market value of approximately 1.5 million USD. PayAI offers multi-chain x402 payment services including support for Solana, and also provides x402 verification services. The token $PAYAI currently has a market value of approximately 5 million USD.

Daydreams: The application and AI Agent support the LLM reasoning process of x402. At the same time, Lucid is being established—a platform where anyone can deploy the Daydreams Agent to solve problems. Users sign transactions with USDC payment through x402, and Agents can pay each other for access. The token $dreams currently has a market value of approximately 6.7 million dollars, making it the highest market value issued coin project within the ecosystem.

GLORIA AI: An instant news platform designed for traders, creators, AI Agents, and automated systems, which can be accessed by paying for services via x402 with $GLORIA . The token $GLORIA currently has a market value of approximately 1.65 million USD.

Kite AI: Creating a foundational trading layer for the “Agentic Internet”, providing unified identity, payment, and governance infrastructure for autonomous agents. What Kite AI does is closely related to x402; it was mentioned as supporting x402 back in July and can be considered the only project categorized as a “chain” within the x402 ecosystem.

x402 Protocol Ecosystem Project Comparison:

Questflow: $6.5 million financing, $SANTA market value $4.5 million, multiple AI Agents coordination

Kite AI: $33 million in funding, led by PayPal, has not issued coins yet, the largest funding scale.

Daydreams: $dreams market cap 6.7 million, highest market cap in the ecosystem

PayAI：$PAYAI market value 5 million, multi-chain payment service

AurraCloud：$AURA market value 1.6 million, AI infrastructure

Meridian：$MRDN market value 1.5 million, multi-chain settlement

GLORIA AI：$GLORIA Market Cap 1.65 Million, Real-time News Platform

Kite AI Leads the Way: $33 Million Financing Led by PayPal

On September 2, according to a report by “Caixin”, Kite AI announced the completion of a total financing of $33 million, with the latest Series A financing amounting to $18 million, led by PayPal Ventures and General Catalyst, and participated by 8VC, Samsung Next, SBI US Gateway Fund, Vertex, Hashed, LayerZero, Animoca Brands, Essence VC, and Alchemy. This is the largest financing project within the x402 protocol ecosystem, far surpassing the million-dollar level financing of other projects.

The lead investment from PayPal Ventures holds special significance. PayPal is one of the largest payment companies in the world, and its strategic investment arm choosing to lead the investment in Kite AI demonstrates the traditional payment giant's high recognition of the integration of AI and blockchain payments. This endorsement not only brings funding but also the experience, compliance framework, and business network that PayPal has in the payment field, which are extremely valuable resources for the development of Kite AI.

Kite AI has not issued a coin yet, but it recently launched the Kite Foundation X account, which is explicitly going to issue a coin and should not be far off. The currently tradable related asset is the official FLY THE KITE NFT, with a floor price of 0.375 ETH. This NFT may play an important role in future token airdrops, similar to the practice of many projects airdropping tokens to early NFT holders. The floor price of 0.375 ETH is approximately $1,500, which is a relatively high threshold, but considering Kite AI's funding background and ecological status, this price may prove to be a bargain.

Kite AI holds a unique position within the x402 protocol ecosystem; it is not only a user of the protocol but also the infrastructure for building the “Internet of Intelligent Agents.” This positioning of the “chain” gives it the potential to become the underlying support for the x402 protocol ecosystem, similar to the relationship between Ethereum and ERC-20 tokens. If Kite AI successfully mints its coin and gains market recognition, its market value could far exceed that of other projects currently within the ecosystem.

x402 Protocol Foundation Established with Collective Endorsement from Giants

In September this year, the compliant cryptocurrency exchange in the United States announced a joint partnership with Cloudflare to establish the x402 Foundation to promote protocol development. Although there are some similar competitors, such as bitGPT's h402 and Radius's EVMAuth, there is no doubt that x402 has the strongest background and the highest level of attention. The involvement of Cloudflare is crucial, as it provides CDN and security services for about 20% of websites globally, and its servers have begun to support x402 transactions, allowing websites around the world to easily integrate this protocol.

If the market value of $PING significantly rises in the coming days, the x402 protocol will gain more market attention. This is not only good for meme coins but also for infrastructure projects. As the wealth effect of the leading tokens attracts a large number of users into the ecosystem, funds will gradually spill over to other projects. Infrastructure projects like Questflow, Kite AI, and Daydreams may benefit from this increased attention, gaining more interest from users, developers, and investors.

For investors, participating in the x402 protocol ecosystem requires distinguishing between short-term speculation and long-term investment. Meme coins like PING are suitable for short-term hype but come with extremely high risks. Although infrastructure projects like Kite AI and Questflow currently have smaller market values or have not yet issued coins, if the x402 protocol truly becomes the AI payment standard, the long-term value of these projects may far exceed that of meme coins. It is recommended that investors adopt a diversified strategy, participating in short-term opportunities in meme coins while also allocating long-term positions in infrastructure projects.