TL;DR
- The Ethereum Foundation unveiled a 2026 plan to make the network the foundational infrastructure for decentralized commerce among artificial intelligence agents.
- The project introduces the ERC-8004 and x402 standards to coordinate autonomous agents under open, auditable, and intermediary-free rules.
- The initiative aims to prevent closed platforms from dominating AI commerce and to establish an interoperable framework for the global AI economy.
The Ethereum Foundation has released its roadmap to develop infrastructure that will enable decentralized commerce between artificial intelligence agents by 2026. The goal is to position Ethereum as the base layer for coordination and settlement in the emerging machine economy.
The plan, led by Davide Crapis and the dAI development team, outlines a framework where autonomous agents and bots can transact, verify tasks, and collaborate under open and auditable rules. The initiative seeks to prevent AI commerce from being captured by closed systems and to guarantee a governance model grounded in transparency and on-chain traceability.
Development revolves around two new standards: ERC-8004 and x402. The former establishes the interoperability structure for intelligent agents, while the latter defines the coordination protocol between them within the Ethereum ecosystem. Both are designed to become neutral standards for automated AI commerce—just as ERC-20 powered DeFi and ERC-721 gave rise to the NFT market.
Ethereum Must Be the Base Layer for AI Coordination
Crapis emphasized that collaboration will be a key factor. “Ethereum must serve as the foundational architecture for global decentralized AI coordination. Agents require open and verifiable rules—without them, closed platforms will dominate the system,” he stated.
The plan received support from key industry figures. Vitalik Buterin highlighted blockchain’s potential role as the foundational layer of the machine economy, while Binance CEO CZ described the initiative as a decisive step toward autonomous system interaction.
Curbing the Dominance of Closed Platforms
The Ethereum Foundation aims to replicate the impact of its previous standards, now extending that framework to artificial intelligence. With ERC-8004 and x402, it intends to build an interoperable environment where agents can trade, coordinate, and validate actions without intermediaries.
According to CoinMarketCap, ETH is currently trading at $3,560, with a market capitalization of $430 billion and a market dominance of 12.17%. Its daily volume stands at around $38.15 billion, with a 1.82% increase over the past week
