Ripple has joined the x402 Foundation as a Premier Member, adding support for XRP and RLUSD in the Foundation’s effort to build an open payment standard for AI agents.
Summary
- Ripple has joined the x402 Foundation as a Premier Member alongside Coinbase, Google, and Mastercard.
- XRP and RLUSD will support AI agent payments through the open x402 protocol on the XRP Ledger.
- The Linux Foundation has launched the x402 Foundation under open governance after Coinbase contributed the protocol.
According to Ripple, AI agents are beginning to handle more of the transaction process, creating demand for payment infrastructure that can move value as efficiently as these systems already exchange information.
The company stated that its work on the XRP Ledger provides developers with tools to support agentic payments through the x402 protocol, allowing AI-powered applications to settle transactions using XRP and its RLUSD stablecoin.
The announcement places Ripple alongside other Premier Members including Coinbase, Circle, Google, Mastercard, Visa, Amazon Web Services, Stripe, Shopify, American Express, Adyen, Cloudflare, Fiserv, the Solana Foundation, the Stellar Development Foundation, the Monad Foundation, and MoonPay.
Ripple expands XRP Ledger role in AI payments
Building on earlier development work, Ripple launched the XRPL AI Starter Kit in June to help developers integrate AI applications with the XRP Ledger. The toolkit introduced support for agentic payments using XRP and RLUSD, allowing autonomous software agents to send and receive blockchain-based payments.
Soon after, Ripple-backed t54.ai introduced the XRPL AI Hub with support from Ripple developers and the XRPL Foundation. The platform was designed to provide resources and infrastructure for developers building AI-powered applications on the XRP Ledger.
Activity on the network has also increased following the rollout of x402 support. The XRPL Foundation recently announced that the XRP Ledger has processed more than one million agentic transactions, indicating growing developer testing and adoption of AI-driven payment workflows.
Ripple stated that combining blockchain settlement with AI agents could allow software systems to complete financial transactions without relying on traditional payment rails while using XRP and RLUSD as settlement assets.
Linux Foundation formalizes x402 governance
Separately, the Linux Foundation announced the operational launch of the x402 Foundation after Coinbase completed the contribution of the x402 protocol. According to the Linux Foundation, the organization will now oversee the protocol under an open governance model intended to guide future technical development.
The Linux Foundation said developers, financial institutions, cloud providers, and other community participants will be able to contribute to the protocol’s direction through the Foundation’s governance framework rather than under the control of a single company.
Membership in the Foundation extends beyond its Premier Members. General Members include Injective, the Near Foundation, Polygon Labs, and World Liberty Financial, while Associate Members include the Cardano Foundation, the BSV Association, Casper, the Japanese Contents Blockchain Initiative, and OMA3.
Coinbase originally introduced x402 as an open internet payment protocol designed to let applications, APIs, and AI agents exchange digital payments through standard web infrastructure.
With Ripple now joining the governing body, XRP and RLUSD gain a larger role in ongoing work to develop payment standards for autonomous software systems while development continues under the Linux Foundation’s stewardship.
