Why AI Agents Still Won't Pay for Anything — Jan Curn, Apify

x402, AP2, ACP, MPP, TAP, UCP: every big fintech and payments company now has an agent payment standard, but real volume is close to zero. Jan Curn, founder of Apify, walks the agent payment funnel (need, setup, discovery, purchase) to show where it breaks. He covers why API keys still win, why crypto is well placed, the trust problem in finding services, and how pay-per-use billing finally landed. Chapters: - 00:00 The agent payments boom - 02:57 Every protocol, from x402 to AP2 - 05:47 Why crypto fits agent payments - 07:38 Nobody's using them. Why? - 08:36 The agent payment funnel - 09:37 Need: competing with API keys - 12:19 Setup: wallets are still hard - 13:19 Discovery: who can an agent trust? - 16:06 Buying: pay-per-use and batch settlement - 19:41 What's next Jan Curn — X: https://x.com/jancurn | https://apify.com Join us in SF for the second annual AIE CODE summit: https://aie.codes our last flagship summit of 2026. Applications live now!