X402 ended the year pretty rough. The numbers tell an interesting story—average transaction size has been on a steady decline, and it just hit a rough patch. Late December saw daily average transaction volume drop below $0.05, marking a new low. That's the kind of metric that makes you pause. On the surface, there's still activity happening on the protocol, plenty of transactions flowing through. But here's the thing: volume without value creation is hollow. When you're seeing usage metrics stay decent but transaction sizes keep compressing, it signals something deeper—either the use case isn't compelling enough to hold larger value transfers, or users are becoming more cautious. Either way, it's a yellow flag worth watching heading into 2025.