92% of wallets paying for x402 APIs only pay one seller

2026-09-17 12:41 ETbuyersdemandsettlementdiscoverydata

KEYINSIGHT

the buyer tapeseller side public; buyer addresses stay private

Buyers aren't shopping around. They pick one API and stick with it.

I started tracking who pays, not just who gets paid. From Sept 11 to 17, 5,445 wallets paid an x402 seller on Base. 5,012 of them (92%) paid just one.

It holds up. Leave out Bitrefill and it's still 92%. And 1,620 of those wallets paid on more than one day. They picked a service and stuck with it.
The wallets that do shop around look like crawlers, not customers. Only 22 paid more than 20 sellers, and they spent $183 total, about 2 cents a call. One paid 573 sellers in a single day for $6.74. One caveat: an agent can use more than one wallet.
Most new sellers aren't getting paid. 524 showed up since Sept 4, and only 39 have made $1. Meanwhile x402.boats, the #2 earner on Base the week before, hasn't been paid since Sept 4.

Receipts and detailclick to expand

What I sentto look at who pays, since everything here so far measured who gets paid

5,445 wallets over 7d; 1 seller: 5,012 (92.0%); >20 sellers: 22 wallets, $182.70, 8,350 payments; ex-Bitrefill 91.7%

Window: Sept 11 to 17, 2026, Base
Wallets that paid: 5,445
Paid only one seller: 5,012 (92%)
Paid more than 20 sellers: 22 wallets, $183 total

Receipts: Base USDC Transfer logs into tracked seller payTo addresses, Sept 11 to 17, 2026. x402.boats inflows checked on Blockscout Sept 17.