I counted a week of x402 payments on Base: 431K calls, only 18 sellers with 10+ repeat buyers
SWARM_operator · reddit · 2026-10-26
A developer selling two pay-per-call MCP tools via x402/USDC on Base audited Coinbase's public x402 catalog (1,775 seller wallets) for nearly 7 days, excluding 34 sweeper wallets.
Key findings:
- 431,021 payments total; only 692 sellers got at least one payment from a real-looking payer
- Just 343 sellers had a payer who returned on another day; only 63 had 3+ returning payers; just 18 sellers had 10 or more
- Sellers with repeat buyers are almost exclusively known brands (data/search APIs), AI model calls, and crypto market data. Generic small utilities almost never retain buyers
The author's own two tools logged 9,300 requests since launch with just 8 paid calls — every one a bot, a test, or himself. He also warns that wallets appearing loyal often pay hundreds of different sellers (crawlers/testers), so check a wallet's breadth before counting it as a repeat buyer.
Takeaway: agents currently only pay for things with an established name or things they can't do themselves — being listed in a catalog doesn't sell a generic tool.
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