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Agent work
Read 2 minutes agoWhat agents buy from other agents, settled on chain.Note 23
Every rail we read
Counted 10 Sep 2026, 09:14Counted from each rail’s own table, not from a list kept by hand: a rail that stops settling shows a last event that stops moving. The units differ on purpose (a channel is not a payment, a job is not a payment, and a registration is not either), so the counts are named rather than added together. The registries are here too: they are rails in the same sense, somebody writes to them and we count what was written.
| Rail | Where | What we hold | Named parties | Events span | Paid | Reported elsewhere |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Virtuals ACP v2 | Base | 404,295 jobs | 4,498 clients | 2026-03-20 → 2026-09-10 | $1.03M | no source |
What this number countsCounts. Jobs on the Virtuals ACP v2 contract on Base, where the job names both parties and we read it end to end. Does not count. ACP v1, which is a different contract with a different job model. One series out of two definitions would be worse than two series. | ||||||
| Olas mech marketplace | BaseGnosisPolygon | 4,113,827 tasks | 1,574 agents paid | 2025-07-07 → 2026-09-10 | $48.3k | 11,883,335Olas |
What this number countsCounts. Fees that settled through the Olas balance-tracker contracts, which is where a mech task is actually paid for. A settled fee, not a request. Does not count. Requests that never settled a fee through a tracker we index, deliveries from mech versions predating these contracts, and everything before the first block listed here. Olas counts requests and deliveries over the rail’s whole life and reports a larger number for that reason. Blocks held. base 33,167,591–51,117,413 · gnosis 40,966,403–48,176,040 · polygon 81,415,748–91,819,496 Contracts read. ethereum:0x528befb0F8c6a988C9F42345DA6d053d66b3B9B6 · base:0xB3921F8D8215603f0Bd521341Ac45eA8f2d274c1 · gnosis:0x21cE6799A22A3Da84B7c44a814a9c79ab1d2A50D · polygon:0xc096362fa6f4A4B1a9ea68b1043416f3381ce300 · optimism:0x4Cd816ce806FF1003ee459158A093F02AbF042a8 · arbitrum:0x26Ea2dC7ce1b41d0AD0E0521535655d7a94b684c · celo:0x2E008211f34b25A7d7c102403c6C2C3B665a1abe | ||||||
| x402 | ArbitrumBaseEthereumOptimismPolygon | 5,879,737 payments | 228,784 payers | 2026-02-21 → 2026-09-10 | — | 182,368,182Agent Economy |
What this number countsCounts. EIP-3009 AuthorizationUsed events on USDC, matched to their paired transfer so a payer and a payee can both be named. Does not count. Tokens other than USDC, chains not listed here, and every block before the first listed. It also excludes the assumption other trackers make: that an authorised gasless transfer is by definition an x402 payment. It is not — the primitive is older and general — so counts elsewhere run to hundreds of millions where this one runs to millions. Blocks held. arbitrum 498,251,211–503,657,833 · base 42,431,207–51,120,569 · ethereum 25,829,947–25,945,922 · optimism 156,031,584–156,715,883 · polygon 92,633,028–93,550,311 Contracts read. base:0x833589fcd6edb6e08f4c7c32d4f71b54bda02913 · ethereum:0xa0b86991c6218b36c1d19d4a2e9eb0ce3606eb48 · polygon:0x3c499c542cef5e3811e1192ce70d8cc03d5c3359 · arbitrum:0xaf88d065e77c8cc2239327c5edb3a432268e5831 · optimism:0x0b2c639c533813f4aa9d7837caf62653d097ff85 | ||||||
| Tempo Machine Payments Protocol | Tempo | 266,907 channels | 1,679 payers | 2026-06-10 → 2026-09-10 | — | no source |
What this number countsCounts. Channels opened, topped up and closed on the Tempo Machine Payments Protocol contract. Does not count. The vouchers inside a channel, which are signed off chain and never broadcast. A channel count is not a payment count and this rail cannot produce one. | ||||||
| Masumi | Cardano | 28,047 escrows | 10 buyers | 2025-06-25 → 2026-09-10 | — | no source |
What this number countsCounts. Escrows on the Masumi contract on Cardano, walked transaction by transaction over the contract’s whole history. Does not count. Any dollar value: the escrows are in ADA and we hold no price for the day each one opened, so a converted figure would be a guess wearing a dollar sign. | ||||||
| ERC-8004 identity registryidentity | AbstractArbitrumAvalancheBaseBSCCeloEthereumGnosisLineaMantleMetisOptimismPolygonRobinhood ChainScroll | 526,005 registrations | 330,751 holders | 2026-01-29 → 2026-09-10 | — | 8 chains compared8004scan |
What this number countsCounts. Registered events on the ERC-8004 identity registry, per chain, from below the contract’s first event to the head. Ever registered, which is cumulative and does not fall. Does not count. The reputation and validation registries, which are separate contracts we count separately. It is also not a count of live agents or of current holders: a registration is a claim somebody made once, and 421 of them have ever appeared on a rail that moves money. Blocks held. abstract 39,596,985–82,855,911 · arbitrum 428,913,028–503,467,548 · avalanche 77,421,834–94,801,921 · base 41,673,162–51,118,818 · bnb 79,094,807–121,034,536 · celo 58,399,999–77,070,857 · ethereum 24,339,925–25,942,779 · gnosis 44,506,402–48,129,223 · linea 28,682,146–30,716,411 · mantle 91,342,432–97,462,605 · metis 22,169,712–22,378,396 · optimism 147,533,371–155,948,694 · polygon 82,465,362–93,546,363 · robinhood 34,617,892–58,633,462 · scroll 29,437,455–32,135,420 · shape 25,836,462–31,456,838 · taiko 4,306,270–5,473,891 · tempo 16,154,410–32,946,093 · xlayer 51,949,526–70,254,637 base:0x8004a169fb4a3325136eb29fa0ceb6d2e539a432 · ethereum:0x8004a169fb4a3325136eb29fa0ceb6d2e539a432 · polygon:0x8004a169fb4a3325136eb29fa0ceb6d2e539a432 · avalanche:0x8004a169fb4a3325136eb29fa0ceb6d2e539a432 · optimism:0x8004a169fb4a3325136eb29fa0ceb6d2e539a432 · arbitrum:0x8004a169fb4a3325136eb29fa0ceb6d2e539a432 · linea:0x8004a169fb4a3325136eb29fa0ceb6d2e539a432 · gnosis:0x8004a169fb4a3325136eb29fa0ceb6d2e539a432 · metis:0x8004a169fb4a3325136eb29fa0ceb6d2e539a432 · bnb:0x8004a169fb4a3325136eb29fa0ceb6d2e539a432 · scroll:0x8004a169fb4a3325136eb29fa0ceb6d2e539a432 · shape:0x8004a169fb4a3325136eb29fa0ceb6d2e539a432 · xlayer:0x8004a169fb4a3325136eb29fa0ceb6d2e539a432 · tempo:0x8004a169fb4a3325136eb29fa0ceb6d2e539a432 · celo:0x8004a169fb4a3325136eb29fa0ceb6d2e539a432 · robinhood:0x8004a169fb4a3325136eb29fa0ceb6d2e539a432 · abstract:0x8004a169fb4a3325136eb29fa0ceb6d2e539a432 · mantle:0x8004a169fb4a3325136eb29fa0ceb6d2e539a432 · taiko:0x8004a169fb4a3325136eb29fa0ceb6d2e539a432 | ||||||
| ERC-8004 reputation registryidentity | AbstractArbitrumAvalancheBaseBSCCeloEthereumGnosisLineaMantleOptimismPolygonRobinhood ChainTempo | 563,110 ratings | 20,404 raters | 2026-01-29 → 2026-09-10 | — | no source |
What this number countsCounts. Ratings written to the ERC-8004 reputation registry and not since revoked. Does not count. Revoked ratings, which are read and then excluded: a rating the author took back is not a rating, and counting it would let anybody inflate an agent’s standing and quietly withdraw the claim. | ||||||
| ERC-8004 on Solanaidentity | Solana | 1,479 registrations | 269 holders | — | — | no source |
What this number countsCounts. Accounts under the Solana port of the identity registry, read by scanning the program rather than by walking logs. Does not count. A date. The accounts carry no event timestamp we are willing to publish as the registry’s own history, so the span is blank rather than filled with when WE read it. | ||||||
| MPL Agent Registryidentity | Solana | 1,592 registrations | 1,592 assets | — | — | no source |
What this number countsCounts. Metaplex Core assets under the MPL Agent Registry program. Does not count. A date, for the same reason as the registry above: the account carries no time we can attribute to the chain rather than to our reader. | ||||||
An empty — under Paid is a figure we decline to print, not a rail that moved nothing: x402 rows carry their amounts in their own tokens and the dollar total for that rail is the one the value job publishes, and Masumi’s escrows are in ADA with no price stored for the day each opened. Two different dollar figures for one rail would be worse than one honest blank.
And what we do not read
| Not read | Why |
|---|---|
| Virtuals ACP v1 | A different contract with a different job model. Folding its jobs into v2 would make one series out of two definitions. |
| The mech marketplace contract itself | It emits nothing we can price. What is read is the balance tracker beside it, which is where a task settles. |
| Vouchers inside a Tempo channel | Signed off chain and never broadcast. The channel opening, topping up and closing are on chain; the payments through it are not. |
| Agent payments over plain transfers | An agent paying with an ordinary token transfer leaves nothing that says it was an agent. Unreadable rather than absent. |
| Custodial and off-chain rails | A marketplace settling in its own ledger publishes no chain record to read. Its totals would be its own claim, and this site does not republish claims as measurements. |
Base · events we can attribute to a named agent protocol
What we can name on Base
FindingA floor, not a total
517,806
events attributable to a named protocol
404,295
Virtuals ACP, agent-to-agent jobs
85,783
ERC-8004, identity registrations
27,728
Olas mech, tasks settled
Events on Base that we can attribute to a protocol by name. Anything using an agent framework we do not read is not in here, so treat it as a lower bound.
How this is counted
Published elsewhere as a single larger figure for “agentic activity on Base”. We do not have that number and will not estimate one: its definition is not public, and the same publisher’s stated methodology for a sister metric concedes that addresses cannot be verified as agents and that the data includes testing and infrastructure. A number nobody can check against a contract is not evidence, whoever publishes it. This one is three protocols, named, and each is checkable on its own.
Tempo mainnet · Machine Payments Protocol · contract and events found by reading the network
The same question on Tempo
Finding
266,916
payment channels opened
1,679
distinct payers
68
distinct payees
$326.32
of USDC.e in the closing amounts
99.3%
of every channel points at one payee
56,926
still open
266,916 channels, 68 recipients, and $326.32 in the amounts those channels closed with. The event count alone reads like a working market.
How this is counted
A channel is not a payment. An agent escrows once and then pays out of it with signed vouchers that never reach the network, so counting channels as payments would overstate this rail by however many vouchers each one carried. What is on chain is the channel opening, topping up and closing.
No ABI is published for this contract. It was found by scanning the network for busy addresses; 0x4d5050… is “MPP” in ASCII, and its two events were read by shape rather than by name. The dollar figure is the sum of the first amount in each close event, in the token those events name (USDC.e, six decimals). We call it “the closing amounts” rather than “settled”, because without an ABI the second word would be a guess.
The one other public tracker of this rail publishes the event count and states that it does not measure dollar volume. That is the difference between a rail that looks busy and one that is.