Coinbase Base head Jesse Pollak says AI agents need programmable money to operate autonomously, pointing to x402’s $48 million in transactions as early proof that crypto rails are becoming the default payment layer for agentic commerce.

The quote landed clean in CoinDesk’s April 24 interview: ‘Agents are defined in software and operating software, they want money as software.’ Pollak, speaking ahead of Consensus Miami 2026, frames crypto not as an investment asset but as infrastructure. What was technically impossible nine months ago, a software agent autonomously purchasing compute, booking travel, or paying for data access without human sign-off, is now a working product. The x402 open-source…