Documentation and API access are provided to partners during onboarding. If you’re interested in adding stablecoin payments to your platform, email us at coinbase.payments@coinbase.com and our team will follow up to discuss fit.
Why stablecoins
- A customer base you can’t reach today. Over 150 million people hold stablecoins globally. This is net-new demand, not a substitution for existing card volume.
- No chargebacks. Cryptographic authorization replaces dispute-based payment models.
- Instant settlement. Funds settle in seconds, not days. No rolling reserves, no holdbacks, no batch windows.
- Borderless by default. Buyers pay from anywhere in the world, 24/7. No cross-border fees, no FX conversion, no correspondent banking.
What you get
Standard payment primitives
Authorization, capture, void, and refund. Same lifecycle your systems already support.
Multiple buyer experiences, one integration
Buyers pay from any self-custody wallet (MetaMask, Phantom, Trust Wallet, and 500+ more), directly from their Coinbase account, or through an x402-enabled agent.
Cross-chain support
Accept payments from Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, and Polygon. Buyers pay from whichever network they’re on.
No gas fees for buyers
Buyers pay the exact amount at checkout, nothing more.
Settlement and reporting
Automated sweeps to your bank account with transaction-level reporting and reconciliation files.
Webhooks
Real-time notifications for every state change in the payment lifecycle.
Sandbox environment
Full test environment with testnet funds so your team can integrate before going live.
How it works
- You create a payment session via API with an amount and currency.
- The buyer authorizes the payment from their wallet, Coinbase account, or x402-enabled agent.
- You capture funds after fulfillment, instantly settled to your account.
- Refunds and voids work exactly like card payments.
x402 agent payments
Payment sessions created with a wallet target include anx402Url, a CDP-hosted URL that you can give to an x402-enabled agent. The agent makes a POST request to this URL. CDP returns the x402 payment requirements in the PAYMENT-REQUIRED header, including the supported USDC payment options.
After the agent completes the x402 payment flow, the payment session follows the normal Payment Acceptance lifecycle. You can capture, void, or refund the payment session using the same APIs as other wallet-authorized sessions.