{"uid":"cap_S3mEbaH9qSIvpP0xBsRfC","slug":"x402-market-intelligence-top-earning-merchants-f8905532","name":"x402 Market Intelligence – Top Earning Merchants","description":"What x402 merchants ACTUALLY earn on-chain, not what they list. Built by sweeping the CDP Bazaar discovery index for every live merchant, then reading each merchant wallet's settled USDC on Base filtered to transferWithAuthorization — the method x402 settles through. Wallet funding and airdrop spam are excluded, as are catalogue crawlers and self-funded circular flows. Public explorers publish the gross number; this publishes the filtered one.","url":"https://x402-intel.rileycraig14.workers.dev/merchants/top?utm_source=zero.xyz","method":"GET","headers":{},"bodySchema":null,"responseSchema":{"type":"json","example":{"coverage":{"routes_indexed":3000,"merchants_earning":85,"merchants_profiled":136},"merchants":[{"arpu":1.412,"host":"api.example.com","payments":250,"gross_usd":353,"routes_listed":5,"unique_payers":11,"calls_per_payer":22.7}]}},"example":null,"exampleRequest":null,"tags":["x402"],"displayCostAmount":"0.05","displayCostAsset":"USDC","priceDynamic":false,"priceHint":null,"priceStatus":"priced","priceSource":"probe","requiresHandshake":false,"reviewCount":0,"rating":{"score":"0.00","successRate":"0.00","reviews":0,"stars":null,"state":"unrated"},"availabilityStatus":"unknown","priceObserved":null,"sessionDeposit":null,"pricing":{"kind":"static","summary":"$0.05/call","primary":{"kind":"static","protocol":"x402","network":"base","amountUsd":"0.05","per":"call","confidence":"exact"},"accepted":[{"kind":"static","protocol":"x402","network":"base","amountUsd":"0.05","per":"call","confidence":"exact"}]},"paymentMethods":[{"uid":"pm_Ua6NLMDHOHTmURFZ6ReU7","protocol":"x402","methodType":"crypto","chain":"base","mode":"charge","costAmount":"0.05","costPer":"request","priority":0,"asset":"0x833589fCD6eDb6E08f4c7C32D4f71b54bdA02913","unit":"request","depositMicros":null,"planRef":null}],"brandName":null,"brandSlug":null,"brandBaseUrl":null,"brandDocsUrl":null,"whatItDoes":"Returns on-chain earnings data for the top x402 merchants on Base, filtered to verified transferWithAuthorization USDC settlements, excluding wallet funding, airdrops, and circular flows.","exampleAgentPrompt":"Pull the x402 market intelligence leaderboard and show me which merchants are actually earning the most in settled USDC on Base — I want the real filtered numbers, not listed prices, including their ARPU and unique payer counts.","exampleUseCases":[{"title":"Identify top x402 API revenue earners","prompt":"Which x402 merchants are genuinely making the most money right now? Show me the leaderboard of on-chain settled USDC earnings, filtered to real payments only, with each merchant's gross revenue and number of unique payers."},{"title":"Assess x402 ecosystem traction for investment","prompt":"I'm evaluating how much real traction the x402 protocol has on Base — can you pull the latest merchant earnings data and tell me how many merchants are actively earning, what the total coverage looks like across indexed routes, and who the standout performers are by ARPU?"},{"title":"Find x402 merchants with best repeat-customer rates","prompt":"I want to find x402 APIs whose customers keep coming back — pull the top merchants list and sort by calls per payer so I can see which ones have the stickiest usage patterns."}],"resultDescription":"A JSON object with a coverage block (routes indexed, merchants earning, merchants profiled) and a ranked array of merchant objects each containing: host domain, gross USD earned, payment count, unique payers, average revenue per user (ARPU), routes listed, and calls per payer. All figures are filtered to verified transferWithAuthorization USDC settlements on Base, excluding wallet top-ups, airdrops, and circular flows.","failureModes":["Payment required (402) if the $0.05 USDC fee is not submitted with the request","Stale data if the CDP Bazaar index has not been re-swept recently","Merchant count may be low (e.g. 85 of 136 profiled) if most merchants have zero verified settlements","Missing merchants if their wallets are not indexed in the CDP Bazaar discovery index","Possible undercounting if transferWithAuthorization filter is too narrow for some x402 implementations"],"whenToPreferThis":"Use this endpoint when you need verified, on-chain x402 merchant revenue data filtered to real payments rather than listed prices or gross explorer numbers. It is the right choice when analyzing x402 ecosystem health, benchmarking merchant performance, identifying high-ARPU or high-retention APIs, or vetting whether a specific merchant host is actively earning. Prefer it over public block explorers (which include noise) or CDP Bazaar listings (which show catalogue data, not earnings).","instructions":null,"reviewSummary":null,"reviewSummaryHighlights":null,"reviewSummaryConcerns":null,"reviewSummaryGeneratedAt":null,"activationCount":0,"lastUsedAt":null,"lastSuccessfullyRanAt":null,"lastHealthCheckAt":"2026-10-11T06:35:26.393Z","isFirstParty":false,"canonicalSlug":"x402-market-intelligence-top-earning-merchants-f8905532"}