b402 is not just an alternative to x402 on BSC, but possibly the starting point of a bigger opportunity.
Written by: Deep Tide TechFlow
The market is currently undergoing another deep adjustment, and everyone is waiting for a rebound after the overreaction.
But when the market truly rebounds, which sectors do you think will benefit first?
The biggest possibility comes from those popular narratives that led the market before the big drop but were interrupted. For example, we can look at the recent performance of privacy coins; aside from the old coins and newly speculated privacy coins, another narrative that could ignite related assets is naturally x402.
Previously, we also wrote that most of the current opportunities for x402 are on the Base chain; however, looking back at this year's market pulse, BNB Chain has indeed created wealth effects in the Perp DEX and meme sectors (despite some controversies), only x402 is absent.
(Related reading: x402 is celebrating on BASE, where are the asset opportunities on BSC and Solana?)
So let's clarify the logic:
If the market warms up in the short term, will the BNB Chain + x402, which comes with topic traffic, experience an explosion? If you agree with this logic, then naturally you need to prepare in advance when no one is paying attention.
According to the crypto ecosystem's inertia of "flowing applications, solid infrastructure," projects that play the "shovel seller" role in a narrative often have greater opportunities.
Who is the most noteworthy shovel seller on BNB Chain? The b402 protocol is definitely one of the answers.
Perhaps you don't know what b402 is and can't grasp the opportunities within it. However, a recent video released by the b402 official Twitter may inspire your imagination about what this project is doing:
On BNBChain, based on the x402 protocol, using the Trump family project WLFI's USD1 stablecoin to transfer to AI Agent, the entire process is smooth and seamless.
Don't forget, nearly 80% of the supply of USD1 runs on BNB Chain.
So in this big topic of x402, aside from base and USDC, this technology may have another interpretation that you overlooked:
When the b402 protocol is connected with BNB Chain, Binance possibly supporting projects in various sectors to cope with competition, and USD1, these elements exist in some relation, the technical narrative may ferment through topics, capital, and controversies, and the energy that can be stirred within may be even greater.
Therefore, in this issue, we will also take a look at the b402 protocol to see if it stands up and what advantages it has compared to other protocols of x402.
x402 cannot be directly copied; b402 fills the gap
I believe most people's instinctive first reaction upon hearing the name b402 is:
Isn't it just moving x402 to BNB Chain? Why create a b402? Isn't this reinventing the wheel?
The b402 official Twitter previously had a brief explanation that very accurately addressed this question:
"x402 supports payments between AI Agents using USDC, while b402 allows them to pay with all BEP-20 standard tokens."
In other words, you cannot easily transfer the x402 setup from the Base chain to BNB Chain.
To understand why it can't be transferred, we first need to clarify what the core of x402 is.
It is not the so-called HTTP 402 status code, nor a payment protocol, but rather allows AI Agents to complete payments without managing Gas.
Imagine if every AI Agent had to hold both USDT (for payments) and BNB (for Gas) simultaneously; how troublesome would that be? It would need to monitor BNB balances, recharge when BNB is insufficient, and handle Gas price fluctuations. This is annoying for human users and a nightmare for programs.
The solution x402 provides on Base is clever: it utilizes a special feature of USDC. The USDC issued by Coinbase implements a standard called EIP-3009, which allows users to sign a single authorization message:
"I agree to transfer X USDC to a certain address," and then anyone can take this signature to execute the transfer on-chain, with the Gas fee paid by the executor.
This is why x402 can achieve low gas payments. The AI Agent only needs to sign, and the Facilitator of x402 takes the signature to execute, so the Agent doesn't have to touch ETH at all.
But on BNB Chain, this route doesn't work.
USDT, BUSD, and the newly released USD1 on BSC do not support EIP-3009. They are standard ERC-20 tokens that only recognize on-chain transactions and do not acknowledge off-chain signatures. If you take a signature to the USDT contract, it simply ignores you.
Thus, the innovation of b402 lies in the fact that since the token contracts on BNB Chain do not support signature authorization, it creates an intermediary layer.
b402 calls this intermediary layer Relayer, which is essentially a deployed Relayer contract. You can understand its role as a "translator":
It receives the user's signature authorization, verifies its authenticity, and then calls the USDT transfer function on behalf of the user.
From the perspective of USDT, it is the Relayer executing the transfer; from the user's perspective, they have simply signed a name. The entire process is as follows:
The user signs a message that includes "Transfer X USDT from my address to the merchant, valid until a certain time."
The b402 Facilitator receives the signature and submits it to the Relayer contract.
The Relayer verifies the authenticity of the signature, checks if the token is on the whitelist, and confirms the validity of the time window.
Once everything is OK, it calls USDT's transferFrom to complete the transfer.
What is the result? AI Agents still only need to sign and do not need to hold BNB. Although the technical paths are completely different, the user experience is identical to x402.
Even better, because the Relayer is b402's own contract, it can support any BEP-20 token.
As long as it is added to the whitelist, USDT can be used, USD1 can be used, and future new stablecoins can also be used. This flexibility is something the original x402 cannot achieve.
So, to answer the opening question of this chapter:
b402 is not reinventing the wheel; rather, it has found a new path that allows AI Agents to pay with on-chain tokens under the technical limitations of BSC.
Creating a new wheel, opening a new market
Solving the technical problem is just the first step. For BSC to share a piece of the pie in the AI Agent economy, it needs not only a protocol but also truly usable infrastructure.
Just look at the x402 Facilitator leaderboard to see how awkward the current situation is. Coinbase ranks first, handling 330,000 transactions. Next are Daydreams, AurraCloud, PayAI… all of them are on Base and Solana. BSC? Not a single one.
What is a Facilitator?
It is the core infrastructure of the x402 ecosystem, equivalent to a payment gateway. When an AI Agent needs to pay to call an API, the Facilitator is responsible for verifying the payment request, checking balances, executing on-chain transactions, and returning results. Without a Facilitator, the x402 protocol is just a piece of paper.
It can be said that whoever controls the Facilitator controls the payment entry for AI Agents.
The b402 Facilitator is currently BSC's answer. It not only replicates the functions of x402 but also optimizes them for the characteristics of BSC. The biggest difference is multi-currency support; it can use not just USDT but any BEP-20 token.
This means that new stablecoins like USD1 can be directly integrated without waiting for additional development.
For developers, integrating the b402 Facilitator is extremely simple. Just add a line in the server configuration: “FACILITATOR_URL=https://facilitator.b402.ai,” and your API can start charging AI Agents. No need to understand blockchain, no need to manage private keys; b402 will handle all the technical details.
But b402's ambition goes beyond that. If the Facilitator is the infrastructure, then b402scan is the superstructure.
If you only look at the name scan, it’s easy to understand it as a similar blockchain explorer, but in reality, it is an “AI** service marketplace.”**
The market means that service providers can publish APIs, set prices, and showcase what functions their AI can perform; other AI Agents can search for needed services, view historical transactions, and directly call the functions provided by these service providers.
From the current situation, this market is still not fully open, but we can continue to monitor the project's progress to see what interesting AI services will emerge in the future.
However, overall, the positioning of b402 as a shovel seller is very clear. The Facilitator is more like a technical gateway, while b402scan resembles a business model similar to Shopify or Amazon.
This forms a complete closed loop:
Developers use the b402 Facilitator to monetize their service APIs;
Developers use b402scan to make their APIs discoverable by others;
AI Agents complete the entire process of discovery, invocation, and payment through the same system. Each transaction reinforces BSC's position as the payment chain for AI Agents.
The official technical diagram from b402 tells a bigger story:
At the bottom are the protocol and Relayer contract, solving technical issues; in the middle are the Facilitator and b402scan, providing service capabilities; at the top are various SDKs, lowering the access threshold. This full-stack layout, in my opinion, is filling in every missing piece of the puzzle for BSC in the AI Agent economy.
It is particularly worth mentioning the variable USD1. When b402 showcased the use of USD1 to pay for AI services on October 28, it may have inadvertently hit a major hotspot.
The Trump family's WLFI chose BSC as the primary issuance chain for USD1, with 80% of the supply located here.
What does a new stablecoin need the most? Highly narrative-driven and profitable use cases. The high-frequency small payments of AI Agents could be one of the answers.
If we compare the AI Agent economy to a war, then Base, relying on Coinbase's resources, has occupied high ground, while Solana is rapidly advancing through hackathons.
BSC, through b402, is building its own stronghold. The characteristic of this stronghold is not that it is the earliest or the largest, but that it is the most open, allowing any token to be used, any service to be listed, and any Agent to participate.
Current Progress and Token Expectations
According to bscscan data, b402 has quietly started to gain traction.
As of November 7, the latest relayer contract of b402 has generated approximately 45,000 transactions; combined with the older relayer contract that is about to be deprecated for technical reasons, b402 has currently generated nearly 86,000 transactions.
From third-party Dune data, although the transaction volume still lags behind Coinbase, considering that b402 has only been online for less than a month, this starting speed is not slow.
What’s more interesting is the transaction distribution; b402's transaction volume began to grow steadily after October 26, which coincides with the time they released the USD1 payment demo.
Looking at the token distribution provides further insight. A staggering 98.7% of the transaction volume in the entire x402 ecosystem uses USDC, while the remaining 1.3% is spread across USD1, USDT, ETH, and a dozen other tokens.
This extreme concentration reflects a significant issue: the current x402 ecosystem heavily relies on Coinbase and USDC. The multi-currency support design of b402 can precisely break this monopoly.
Of course, the current transaction volume of USD1 is only $200,000, but this precisely indicates that the opportunity is still in its early stages.
If the Trump concept is hyped again next year, the usage of USD1 could see explosive growth. By then, the only mature AI payment protocol on BSC will be b402.
This also touches on expectations regarding the b402 token. However, the b402 team has not yet released a specific plan regarding token economics; but we can speculate on several directions based on the technical architecture.
The first is protocol fees, which may charge a transaction fee of 0.1-0.3%; these fees could be used for buybacks or dividends. The second is governance rights, which would determine whitelist tokens, fee adjustments, protocol upgrades, and other important matters. The third is a staking mechanism, where operating the Facilitator may require staking a certain amount of tokens as collateral.
If designed this way, the benefit is that the token value is directly linked to the protocol's usage. The more transactions there are, the higher the protocol's revenue, and the greater the token's value, which aligns with the narrative of real income.
Of course, the above is merely speculation; interested players can further follow the project's official Twitter for updates.
Overall, paying attention to b402 is essentially betting on whether BSC can secure a place in the AI Agent economy. Conservatively, this is an infrastructure project within the BSC ecosystem, growing slowly alongside the ecosystem. Aggressively, it may also give rise to more wealth-generating projects under the narrative of the AI economy.
Conclusion
At this point, the story of b402 has been largely clarified. But I would like to discuss the bigger picture behind this project.
The explosion of x402 is not a coincidence. It solves a real problem, allowing AI Agents to make autonomous payments. This demand will grow exponentially with the proliferation of AI Agents; as for how much of the pie b402 can claim, we do not have a clear answer.
However, looking back at the history of project development in the crypto industry, the current situation of b402 and x402 reminds me of the relationship between Uniswap and 0x Protocol back in the day.
At that time, 0x Protocol had advanced technology and a well-developed order book; however, it was too ahead of its time and disconnected from the on-chain demand of that era. Uniswap, on the other hand, took a half-step back technically, lacking an order book and only offering simple swaps, yet it perfectly hit the demand for DeFi's explosion.
Today, Uniswap has become the infrastructure of DeFi.
Using USDC for micro-payments is indeed elegant, but it now appears that the use cases are still very scattered, far from truly shining. The implementation plan of b402 was originally a reluctant move due to BSC's inability to directly copy x402, but this "compromise" may have inadvertently led to fruitful outcomes.
Why? Because b402 allows any BEP-20 token to conduct gasless transactions, which opens up at least three unexpected opportunities:
First, the barrier to entry for ordinary users and AI Agents has completely disappeared. Imagine a new user or Agent can receive any token with an empty wallet and then directly transfer or trade on PancakeSwap, without needing to first top up BNB for Gas.
Second, the on-chain Agent economy may truly explode as a result. When all tokens can be traded gaslessly, the trading strategies and financial strategies of Agents will become more flexible. A DeFi Agent can freely switch between various tokens without worrying about Gas management. This convenience could lead to exponential growth in Agent transaction volumes.
Third, on-chain behavior may become more anonymous. When a large number of transactions are completed through the Relayer, there is no longer a need for accounts to supplement Gas, making it impossible for external observers to trace wallet relationships through Gas sources.
This brings us back to the initial question: if the market rebounds, what will you buy?
It now seems that b402 is not just an alternative to x402 on BSC, but possibly the starting point of a bigger opportunity. It addresses not only the payment issues of AI Agents but also the entire gasless transaction problem within the BSC ecosystem. This market is much larger than just AI Agents.
If you believe that the AI Agent narrative can permeate the crypto market for years, if you think gasless transactions are key to the popularization of Web3, and if you believe that on-chain privacy will become the next hotspot, then b402 is worth paying attention to.
Not because it will definitely succeed, but because it may inadvertently open a bigger door. Just like Uniswap back in the day, the simplest solutions often contain the greatest opportunities.
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