📊 What 37 AI Agents Actually Pay For

July 2026 — Real usage data from the minia2a x402 network

Published: 31 July 2026 · Data source: minia2a.uk/api/stats (live) · 154 services tracked

Registered Agents

154

Available Services

Paid Transactions

$12.75

Total Volume (USDC)

291K+

Total API Requests

37.8%

Trial → Paid Rate

The Big Picture: What Categories Do Agents Need?

We grouped all 154 x402 endpoints into 7 categories. The results show where the agent economy is actually transacting — not what VCs think, but what agents pay for.

🔗 Crypto & DeFi 633 calls 24 endpoints

🏗️ Agent Infra 497 calls 9 endpoints

🛠️ Developer Tools 467 calls 24 endpoints

🔐 Security & Identity 403 calls 6 endpoints

🌐 Web & Data 329 calls 7 endpoints

💼 Commerce & Data 285 calls 4 endpoints

📡 Communication 67 calls 2 endpoints

💡 Key insight: Crypto & DeFi dominates in both raw volume (633 calls) and breadth (24 endpoints). But Agent Infrastructure punches above its weight — 497 calls from just 9 endpoints, averaging 55 calls per endpoint vs. 26 for crypto. Infrastructure tools are sticky: agents use them constantly, not occasionally.

Top 15 Endpoints by Active Users

Ranked by unique registered users — the best signal of genuine agent adoption. A high call count with few users means a few power users; high users with moderate calls means broad ecosystem adoption.

#	Endpoint	Category	Users	Calls
1	/x402/web-scrape	Web	26	188
2	/x402/token-security	Crypto	20	79
3	/x402/time	Dev Tools	15	52
4	/x402/uuid	Dev Tools	13	29
5	/x402/wallet	Crypto	10	55
6	/x402/wallet-intel	Crypto	9	38
7	/x402/text-scrape	Web	7	36
8	/x402/base64	Dev Tools	7	32
9	/x402/markdown	Dev Tools	7	28
10	/x402/ens-resolve	Crypto	7	28
11	/x402/address-parse	Crypto	6	32
12	/x402/tx-decode	Crypto	6	40
13	/x402/sentiment	Comm	6	30
14	/x402/email	Comm	6	37
15	/x402/funding-rate	Crypto	6	41

💡 Web scraping is the #1 agent use case. 26 of 37 agents (70%) use web scraping. This makes sense: AI agents need real-time web data to make decisions, and traditional scraping infrastructure (proxies, headless browsers, CAPTCHA solving) is expensive to self-host. x402 lets agents pay per scrape — $0.01–$0.05 — without managing infrastructure.

The "Ghost Users" — High Usage, Zero Registration

One of the most interesting patterns: 32 endpoints show significant usage but zero registered users. These are anonymous trial calls — agents testing the waters before committing. Some highlights:

Endpoint	Anonymous Calls	What This Tells Us
/x402/gas	321	Gas price lookups are a universal agent need — every DeFi agent checks gas before submitting txs
/x402/captcha-solve	305	CAPTCHA solving is a pain point agents encounter constantly; demand is real but conversion needs work
/x402/store	140	Agent-to-agent commerce (buying/selling data) is happening but hasn't converted to paid yet
/x402/find	120	Discovery/search is heavily used — agents are looking for other agents and services
/x402/polymarket	78	Prediction market data is in demand; betting/information agents are a growing segment

💡 The conversion opportunity: 321 anonymous gas-price lookups and 305 anonymous CAPTCHA solves represent agents with clear, repeated needs. The trial-to-paid funnel for these endpoints should be the #1 growth priority. A simple "You've used this 10 times — register for 500 free credits" nudge could convert these anonymous users.

Category Deep Dives

🔗 Crypto & DeFi — 633 calls, 24 endpoints

The largest category by far. Crypto agents need: token security checks (79 calls), wallet operations (55 calls), funding rate data (41 calls), transaction decoding (40 calls), wallet intelligence (38 calls), and ENS resolution (28 calls). Every DeFi agent is a bundle of these micro-services — and x402 lets them pay per call instead of subscribing to expensive data feeds.

Standout endpoints: /x402/token-security (20 users — the second-most popular endpoint overall), /x402/wallet (10 users, 55 calls), /x402/funding-rate (6 users, 41 calls — high engagement per user).

🛠️ Developer Tools — 467 calls, 24 endpoints

Surprisingly strong. Agents need the same utilities human developers need: UUID generation (13 users), base64 encoding (7 users), Markdown rendering (7 users), date math (7 users), hashing (7 users). These are low-cost, high-frequency calls — the "plumbing" of agent software.

Standout endpoints: /x402/uuid (13 users — #4 overall), /x402/time (15 users — #3 overall), /x402/hash (7 users).

🏗️ Agent Infrastructure — 497 calls, 9 endpoints

Small category, outsized usage. With 497 calls from just 9 endpoints, agent infrastructure tools are used heavily by the agents that discover them. /x402/gas alone drives 321 anonymous calls — gas estimation is table stakes for any on-chain agent.

Standout endpoints: /x402/gas (321 calls, anonymous), /x402/ecosystem-health (34 calls), /x402/agent-skill-pack (6 registered users).

🔐 Security & Identity — 403 calls, 6 endpoints

CAPTCHA solving alone accounts for 305 of the 403 calls in this category. The remaining calls go to email verification, IP lookups, DNS lookups, and liveness checks. Security is a concentrated need — a few endpoints do most of the work.

What This Means for the Agent Economy

Web scraping is the gateway drug. 70% of agents use it. It's the first thing an agent developer realizes they need, and x402 solves it without requiring proxy infrastructure. This should be the #1 acquisition channel.
Crypto agents are the early adopters. They already understand wallets, USDC, and pay-per-call models. The agent economy will grow outward from crypto-native use cases.
Developer tools have surprising pull. UUID generation and date math aren't glamorous, but 13+ users each proves agents need basic utilities — and they'll pay for reliability.
Anonymous usage is a conversion goldmine. 321 gas lookups with zero registered users means the demand is real but the onboarding isn't capturing it. Fixing this is the highest-leverage growth move.
37.8% trial-to-paid conversion is strong for dev tools. Compare to ~2–5% for typical SaaS. Agent developers who try the platform tend to stay.

Methodology

All data comes from the minia2a public stats API, queried on 31 July 2026. "Registered users" means agents that completed registration and received trial credits. "Calls" includes both registered and anonymous usage. "Paid transactions" are on-chain USDC payments via the x402 protocol on Base L2.

The minia2a platform uses the x402 protocol — an open standard for AI agent payments via USDC on Base. Agents pay per API call (typically $0.01–$0.05) using non-custodial wallets. The platform takes a 5% fee. Full protocol details at x402.org.