Ex-Ripple exec on XRP’s 13M AI payments: What’s next?

The XRP Ledger has surpassed 13 million AI-powered payments through the x402 protocol, with RippleX engineering head J. Ayo Akinyele reporting increased activity among automated payment services using XRP and Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin.

According to Akinyele’s October 10 statement, the XRP Ledger processed more than 13 million transactions across 166 registered x402 merchants. He estimated that agent-driven payments represented approximately 25% of ledger activity, while former Ripple product lead Chandler Fang pointed to growing demand for automated payments involving APIs, data and computing services.

Data from the XRPL AI Hub subsequently showed 13.49 million transactions and 168 registered merchants, indicating continued growth after the milestone announcement.

XRP Ledger AI payments surpass 13 million transactions

AI-driven payments on the XRP Ledger have increased rapidly since July, when the network crossed its first million transactions through x402.

The protocol allows automated software agents to pay for digital services using blockchain transactions, without requiring a person to approve each individual payment.

Akinyele previously predicted that the network would process more than 10 million agentic transactions. On October 10, he confirmed that the milestone had been exceeded.

“100M might actually come sooner than we expect!” he wrote, referring to the possibility of the XRP Ledger eventually processing 100 million automated payments.

The statement was a forecast, not a confirmed transaction target or development deadline. In the same update, Akinyele estimated that agentic payments accounted for roughly one-quarter of activity on the XRP Ledger. He did not provide a detailed time period or calculation methodology for that percentage.

Data published by the XRPL AI Hub showed 13,489,468 agentic transactions around the time of the announcement, involving 168 registered merchants.

The dashboard recorded approximately 6,982 XRP and 12,010 RLUSD in cumulative settlements at that point.

A subsequent check showed more than 13.6 million transactions, confirming that the tracker continued recording activity after the October 10 report. These are figures from the t54-operated payment index, which tracks payments associated with its x402 infrastructure.

The network previously reached its first million AI-powered payments on July 8, following the launch of the XRPL AI Hub by Ripple-backed t54.ai.

At the time, the XRP Ledger Foundation welcomed the milestone, while t54 introduced a platform for monitoring transactions, discovering services and accessing development tools.

Former Ripple executive expects more XRP and RLUSD payments

Former Ripple product lead and t54 co-founder Chandler Fang believes the next stage of development will involve additional businesses accepting automated cryptocurrency payments. Following Akinyele’s announcement, Fang pointed to the increase from approximately 1 million agentic transactions in July to more than 13 million in October.

He expects more businesses to connect their products and services to the XRP Ledger, allowing AI agents to pay directly using XRP or RLUSD.

According to Fang, the next phase would involve more real-world merchants moving services onto blockchain infrastructure and using t54’s x402 facilitator for settlement. The facilitator connects applications requesting paid services with blockchain payment infrastructure. When an agent requests access to a service, the system can verify whether payment is required, submit the transaction and confirm settlement before the service responds.

Ripple’s official development documentation describes the process as suitable for automated payments involving APIs, data subscriptions and AI model inference.

An application could, for example, pay for access to a data feed or computing service without requiring a separate subscription or manual checkout.

The system supports XRP and RLUSD, allowing businesses to choose between the network’s native cryptocurrency and Ripple’s dollar-backed stablecoin. Fang did not announce a specific merchant partnership or an additional transaction target in his October 10 remarks. The expected expansion into more commercial services remains dependent on developers integrating the payment tools and merchants accepting automated transactions.

Ripple expands AI payment tools using XRP and RLUSD

The latest growth follows Ripple’s June 9 introduction of the XRPL AI Starter Kit, a collection of tools designed to help developers build applications capable of sending and receiving payments automatically.

Ripple announced that the toolkit supported x402 payments using XRP and RLUSD, along with integrations for wallet management and transaction monitoring.

The release included tools that allow AI agents to create wallets, check balances, initiate transfers and retrieve transaction information. Developers can connect those capabilities to automated applications, allowing software to perform routine payment tasks within predefined limits.

Ripple said the XRP Ledger’s settlement process generally completes transactions in three to five seconds, making it suitable for services requiring frequent small payments. The network supports native XRP payments and issued assets such as RLUSD, which is designed to maintain a value of one U.S. dollar. Unlike XRP, whose market value changes with trading activity, RLUSD is backed by reserves and can be used for payments requiring a stable dollar amount.

Ripple’s official RLUSD documentation explains that accounts must establish a trust line with the issuer before they can hold or receive the stablecoin. For developers, the x402 integration reduces the need to build separate checkout systems for individual services.

The protocol uses the HTTP 402 Payment Required response, allowing a website or application to specify a payment request before granting access to content. An AI agent can respond with a signed transaction, which a facilitator verifies and submits to the blockchain.

Ripple’s earlier AI payment toolkit launch introduced these capabilities as part of its effort to support automated financial transactions on the XRP Ledger. The company has since expanded its involvement in the x402 ecosystem, including its participation in industry work on standards for automated payments.

Can XRP Ledger AI payments reach 100 million?

Akinyele’s latest projection suggests that 100 million x402 transactions could become a future milestone for the XRP Ledger.

However, neither Ripple nor t54 has announced a deadline for reaching that figure. The increase in transaction counts does not establish an equivalent increase in transaction value or commercial revenue. The XRPL AI Hub’s reported settlement totals show that many recorded payments involve small amounts of XRP or RLUSD.

At the October 10 snapshot, more than 13 million transactions corresponded to cumulative settlement figures of roughly 6,982 XRP and 12,010 RLUSD. The dashboard does not establish how much of that activity came from independent businesses, repeated automated requests or experimental applications.

Earlier research into XRP Ledger AI transaction fees examined the difference between large transaction counts and the relatively small fees generated by low-cost automated payments. In July, the network had processed approximately 1.4 million agentic payments, with estimated fees totaling around $280.

The analysis noted that x402 transactions can involve small payments for individual digital services, making transaction volume a different measure from overall financial value. RippleX has continued developing supporting tools for agents that manage funds, including wallet permissions, transaction safeguards and payment authorization.

At XRP Seoul 2026 on October 3, Akinyele discussed infrastructure for AI agents conducting transactions through the XRP Ledger. The work includes verifiable identities, spending controls and secure wallets capable of handling XRP and stablecoin payments.

Meanwhile, t54’s public x402 implementation includes software for monitoring validated payments, identifying participating merchants and recording transaction information. Its technical documentation describes an indexer that connects to XRP Ledger nodes, watches payment transactions and identifies x402 activity using known facilitator identifiers. 

Developers can use the associated tools to register payment services, view transaction histories and integrate automated settlement into their applications.