L402
A Lightning Network payment protocol developed by Lightning Labs that predates x402 and targets Bitcoin-settled API payments.
Related terms
- LSAT (now L402) - Lightning Service Authentication Tokens - a macaroon-based auth format for binding Lightning payment proofs to API access. Lightning Labs fo
- x402 - An open payment protocol built on top of HTTP 402 that lets servers demand stablecoin payment before serving a resource, and lets clients (i
Recent stories
PROTOCOL
- Coinbase Q1 call: 99% of x402 settled in USDC, 90% of agentic stablecoin volume on Base - Choi calls x402 'the open standard for the next wave of agentic commerce' · theglobeandmail.com
- Circle ships Nanopayments on mainnet - gas-free USDC down to $0.000001 across 11 chains, fully x402 v2 compatible · circle.com
- Kite ships mainnet + Agent Passport - first x402-native chain with programmable agent wallets goes live · globenewswire.com
- Utexo enables USDT payments on x402 with near-instant Bitcoin-native settlement · prnewswire.com
- AWS Bedrock integrates x402 - first major cloud provider with native HTTP 402 payment rails for agents · cryptobriefing.com
RESEARCH
- Dev|Journal: 'Hidden scalability problems of x402' - per-request settlement, 200% fee overhead, and the caching/session reuse incompatibility - the most credible technical critique to date · earezki.com
- Crypto.com Research: x402 daily on-chain volume still only ~$68K despite 169M tx count - the bear case on real adoption · cryptocomresearch.substack.com
- Erik Reppel at Consensus Miami: 'AI agents end internet ads' - x402 founder pegs agentic economy at $3T-$5T by 2030 · coindesk.com
- Cloudflare CSO: 'we process a billion 402s a day' - x402 framed as the answer to bot traffic eating ad and subscription revenue · coindesk.com
- x402 daily volume breaks out - 0xSammy clocks 151K txns on April 24, more than 2x prior baseline · 0xsammy.com