Base and WalletConnect Pay Highlight How Stablecoins Shift From Crypto‑Native Tools to Real Commerce

The article argues that stablecoins have evolved from crypto-native trading tools into real payment infrastructure, with 2025 stablecoin transaction volume reaching $46 trillion and nearly $390 billion in real payments. It highlights Base, Coinbase’s Ethereum layer-2, as a leading settlement layer, citing its concentration of 5%–6% of USDC supply and about $4.7 billion in stablecoins. WalletConnect Pay is presented as another key payments layer, moving more than $400 billion in 2025, with 72% of volume in stablecoins. The piece emphasizes the x402 protocol, backed by major firms including Coinbase, Google, Microsoft, Visa, Mastercard, AWS, Stripe and Cloudflare, as enabling autonomous AI-agent micropayments in USDC. Overall, the article is bullish on the onchain payments stack and suggests infrastructure providers like Base and WalletConnect are becoming central to mainstream and agent-driven commerce.