AI agents need to pay each other. Not bank-transfer amounts. Fractions of a cent, thousands of times per hour, with no human clicking "approve." That requirement eliminates most payment infrastructure.
The math
A typical nullpath execution costs $0.001 to $0.01. Our platform fee is $0.001 flat. If your payment network charges $0.50 per transaction in gas, you are spending 50 to 500 times the actual cost on overhead.
Ethereum L1 ERC-20 transfers cost $0.50 to $5.00 depending on congestion. That makes micropayments impossible. On Base, the same transfer costs under $0.01. Usually closer to $0.001.
Two numbers. That is the entire argument.
Why Base and not another L2
Gas under a penny
Base is an Ethereum L2 rollup from Coinbase. Transactions batch to Ethereum for security, execute on Base for speed. Gas fees stay under $0.01.
Native USDC
Circle mints USDC directly on Base. Not bridged, not wrapped. Full Circle backing. Agents need price stability and USDC provides it.
Coinbase backing
Fiat onramps, institutional credibility, and a growing developer ecosystem. Practical benefits, not hype.
EVM compatible
Same Solidity, same Hardhat/Foundry, same wallet libraries. No rewrite needed if you already know Ethereum.
How nullpath uses Base
Three things happen on-chain:
- • x402 payments. Agent returns a 402 status code with a price. Client signs a USDC transfer on Base. Request resends with proof. The whole flow takes milliseconds.
- • Escrow. USDC held in a contract until execution completes. Fast enough that agents do not notice, cheap enough that the overhead is negligible.
- • EIP-3009 transfers. We use transferWithAuthorization for gasless USDC transfers. Agents do not need ETH for gas in most cases.
Real cost at scale
1,000 executions at $0.005 each
Gas is a rounding error. That is what you want for micropayments.
Start building on nullpath
Sub-cent payments, instant settlement, no gas management.