$PING is surging on the #x402 AI agent payment protocol hype — up 130x from mint, jumping from a $10M to $30M market cap in just hours. With #a16z calling this a $30T market by 2030 and Coinbase covering all fees, the setup looks perfect on paper.

But there’s noise in the background — #Ping Observer is facing wash trading allegations, with claims of inflated transaction volumes fueled by Coinbase’s free fee structure. It’s a reminder that this is still pure degen territory.

That said, the narrative is undeniably strong. x402’s integrations with Cloudflare, Circle, and Base put it in front of 100M+ users.

DePIN + AI agents + institutional backing = serious momentum — just keep in mind, some of the metrics are being gamed.