In the cryptocurrency market, every technological innovation or narrative shift can potentially give rise to new wealth myths. Recently, a token named $PING on the Base chain has rapidly become the market focus with its astonishing 30-fold increase, earning it the title of "Big Gold Dog." The minting process of $PING evokes memories of the "inscription craze" triggered by the Bitcoin Ordinals protocol in 2023, and it is supported by the open payment protocol x402 developed by Coinbase. This not only sparks market expectations for a second "inscription craze" but also heralds the arrival of the AI Agent autonomous payment revolution. Is the meteoric rise of $PING merely a fleeting speculative frenzy, or is it the prelude to a new era of AI Agent payments empowered by the x402 protocol?
- $PING Surge: The Reappearance of the "Inscription" Myth on the Base Chain
In the past few days, the $PING token on the Base chain has undoubtedly been the most dazzling new star in the crypto market. It was issued through the x402 protocol, with a minting cost of about $1, successfully yielding 5000 $PING tokens. Based on the current token price, a successful mint can yield returns of up to 18 times, with some even reaching 30 times.
Stunning Increase: Currently, the market capitalization of $PING has surpassed $30 million, with a 24-hour increase of over 8 times, quickly attracting a large amount of attention.
"Inscription"-style Minting: The minting process of $PING reminds one of Bitcoin inscriptions from two years ago. Its page design is also similar to that year's inscriptions, appearing quite hardcore. Crypto researcher Haotian points out that the operational logic of $PING is similar to the core of inscriptions: users send USDC to a specific address on the Base chain, and x402scan acts as an "indexer," scanning these transfers and determining which transactions are "valid mints" based on its defined rules (1 USDC = 5000 $PING), then recording them in an off-chain database and distributing tokens through a contract.
Controversy and Potential: When inscriptions first emerged, they faced resistance from the Bitcoin Core team, who believed they added no value other than increasing dust transactions. $PING faces a similar situation, as its existence logic is analogous, but the x402 protocol, as an open standard, is difficult to hinder in the short term. Haotian believes that the emergence of $PING is a "call to arms," forcefully creating use cases for the x402 protocol and stress-testing it, undoubtedly marking a "singularity of the x402 narrative," which is expected to give rise to a series of improvements and ecological prosperity.
- Decoding the x402 Protocol: A New Foundation for AI Agent Payments
The x402 protocol is an open payment protocol developed by Coinbase that utilizes the long-standing "HTTP 402 Payment Required" status code, aiming to enable AI Agents to autonomously complete transactions.
Operational Mechanism: If an API request lacks payment information, x402 will return an HTTP 402 status code, prompting the client to pay and retry the request. Coinbase built upon this status code, adding the functionality of using blockchain for payments, resulting in the x402 protocol.
AI Agent Payments: The protocol workflow intuitively explains its operation: a user makes a request to the AI (e.g., "Help me buy jeans on Amazon"), the AI initiates a purchase request to the merchant, the merchant constructs transaction information (wallet address, chain, currency, amount), the AI sends the transaction to the x402 validator, which verifies the assets, goods, and user authorization, then sends the amount and payment proof to the merchant's address to complete the transaction.
Simplifying On-chain Payments: The x402 protocol simplifies the channels for on-chain assets to be used for actual payments, allowing users to consume directly with USDT, USDC, or even other on-chain assets without converting to fiat currency. This is attractive for any Web API or content provider looking to offer low-cost, frictionless payment paths for small or usage-based transactions.
The Future of AI Agents: As payers/receivers, AI Agents are highly compatible with blockchain payments because they do not naturally possess bank or payment app accounts like humans do through KYC. With the continuous improvement of AI Agent intelligence, novel consumption experiences or on-chain experiences are worth looking forward to.
- Opportunities and Controversies: The "Inscription"-style Evolution of the $PING Model
The success of $PING has revealed the immense potential of the x402 protocol, but it has also exposed points of controversy regarding its current implementation.
Controversy: The funds of $PING are held in a treasury wallet designated by x402scan, with the team crowdfunding while issuing tokens. This practice of asset custody under a centralized entity contradicts the decentralized intention of the x402 protocol to open payment channels for AI Agents and may be incompatible with other x402 protocols, lacking unified standards for minting, transferring, and burning operations.
Future Evolution: Just as the evolution logic of BRC20-ARC20-SRC20-Runes, Haotian predicts that more self-proclaimed "orthodox" new "inscriptions" will emerge in the future, which may improve custody methods, change the form of minting, and gain native protocol support. Even if the x402scan protocol fails or the Treasury absconds with funds, this wave of momentum cannot be stopped. Pandora's box has been opened, and the explosion of the x402 narrative is certain; $PING has merely sounded the charge.
- Overview of the x402 Ecosystem: The AI Agent Blueprint Under Coinbase's Background
The ecosystem of the x402 protocol is still in its early development stage, but several noteworthy projects have emerged, supported by the strong backgrounds of Coinbase and Cloudflare.
Questflow: A multi-AI Agent task coordination layer that allows multiple AI Agents to autonomously coordinate and execute tasks. It has completed a $6.5 million seed round of financing and received support from the Coinbase Developer Platform.
AurraCloud: An AI Agent infrastructure aimed at crypto-native applications, providing x402 verification services.
Meridian: Offers multi-chain settlement and custody services for the x402 protocol.
PayAI: Provides multi-chain x402 payment service support, including Solana, and also offers x402 verification services.
Daydreams: Supports applications and AI Agents with the LLM reasoning process for x402.
Gloria AI: A real-time news platform built for traders, creators, AI Agents, and automated systems.
Kite AI: Creates a foundational trading layer for the "Agentic Internet," providing unified identity, payment, and governance infrastructure for autonomous agents. It has completed $33 million in financing, led by PayPal Ventures and General Catalyst.
Strong Background: In September of this year, Coinbase and Cloudflare announced the joint establishment of the x402 Foundation to promote protocol development. Although there are some similar competitors, such as bitGPT's h402 and Radius's EVMAuth, x402 undoubtedly has the strongest background and the highest level of attention.
Conclusion:
The meteoric rise of $PING not only brings back the "inscription" myth on the Base chain but also puts the Coinbase x402 protocol in the spotlight. This wave driven by AI Agent payments and on-chain asset issuance signals that the Web3 world is ushering in a new transformation. Despite the controversies surrounding the current implementation of $PING, the immense potential of the x402 protocol, along with the strong backing of Coinbase and Cloudflare, indicates that the Pandora's box of the AI Agent autonomous payment revolution has been opened. In the future, as the x402 ecosystem continues to develop and improve, we can expect to see more "orthodox" x402 "inscriptions" emerge, collectively building a smarter and more efficient digital financial future.
Related Reading: Western Union to Pilot Stablecoin-Driven Transfer Services
Original: “Base Chain Sees 30x Gold Dog $PING, x402 Protocol Ignites 'Inscription 2.0' Craze”
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