[a16z: AI agent payment volume far lower than media reports, but adoption is growing] According to Cointelegraph, a16z partner Noah Levine posted on the X platform stating that the payment transaction volume of AI agents is far lower than media reports. He pointed out that while reports claim AI agent payments reached $24 million in the past 30 days, the actual figure is only about $1.6 million after excluding wash trades. Levine stated that this discrepancy reflects the fact that even the measurement infrastructure is still in its early stages. Levine noted that most AI payment activities are currently concentrated in the developer tools sector, such as websites transitioning to AI data platforms, AI browsers, and AI image platforms. While these companies accept credit card payments, the x402 protocol allows developers or agents to trial tools without subscriptions. Levine emphasized that while the $1.6 million volume is not large, the infrastructure built around it is substantial. Stripe, Cloudflare, Vercel, and others have already integrated x402, and Google has embedded it into the agent payment protocol. These companies are betting on the scale of agents becoming default buyers in the future.