Coinbase Rolls Out “Agentic Wallets” Designed for Autonomous AI Trading
June 12 2026 – Coinbase has unveiled a new wallet infrastructure that lets artificial‑intelligence agents execute, earn and manage crypto assets without direct human approval. The move marks a significant step toward fully automated machine economies in the digital‑asset space.
What the “Agentic Wallet” is
Coinbase engineers Erik Reppel and Josh Nickerson announced the feature as an extension of the company’s AgentKit framework, which was introduced in late‑2024 to let developers embed Coinbase wallets inside AI‑driven applications. The new wallets are built on x402, a payment protocol created specifically for autonomous agents. Since its debut, x402 has processed roughly 50 million transactions, enabling agents to purchase compute power, subscribe to premium data feeds, and settle storage fees automatically.
Key capabilities include:
- Self‑sufficient trading – agents can monitor DeFi positions, rebalance portfolios, and execute swaps on the Ethereum layer‑2 network Base without waiting for a user signature, provided the owner has pre‑approved the required permissions.
- Cross‑chain operations – using the same architecture, agents can also run on the Bitcoin Lightning Network via the L402 protocol released by Lightning Labs, allowing them to manage native BTC balances without exposing private keys.
- Programmable economics – developers can define spending limits, risk parameters and governance rules that the AI follows, turning the wallet into a programmable financial proxy.
“The next generation of agents won’t just advise – they’ll act,” Reppel and Nickerson wrote in a Coinbase developer blog post. “From monitoring yields to paying for compute, the wallet lets agents operate 24/7 on any opportunity they detect.”
Industry Context
Coinbase’s launch arrives amid a flurry of activity aimed at marrying AI with crypto payments:
| Company | Recent Development | Relevance |
|---|---|---|
| Lightning Labs | Introduced L402, a standard for AI agents to transact on Lightning. | Expands autonomous capabilities to Bitcoin’s layer‑2. |
| Crypto.com | Launched ai.com, a consumer‑focused platform for personal AI assistants that can handle emails, bookings and shopping. | Demonstrates growing demand for AI‑driven personal finance tools. |
| Circle (CEO Jeremy Allaire) | Forecast that billions of AI agents will transact with stablecoins within 3‑5 years. | Highlights market expectation for AI‑driven payments at scale. |
| Binance (former CEO CZ) | Stated that crypto will become the native currency for AI agents. | Reinforces the view that digital assets are the natural medium for machine commerce. |
| Unveiled the Universal Commerce Protocol and Agent Payment Protocol 2, using Google Pay to settle fiat transactions on behalf of AI. | Shows traditional tech giants are also building agent‑centric payment layers. |
Collectively, these initiatives suggest a broader industry pivot toward agentic commerce, where software entities can independently earn, spend and move value.
Potential Implications
- Accelerated DeFi Automation – By removing the manual signature step, agents can react instantly to arbitrage or yield‑optimization opportunities, potentially increasing the efficiency of liquidity provision on platforms like Aave, Uniswap and Curve.
- New Business Models – Developers may monetize AI agents that execute services (e.g., data‑scraping, market‑making) and charge fees directly in crypto, creating “machine‑as‑a‑service” ecosystems.
- Regulatory Scrutiny – Autonomous financial actors raise questions around AML/KYC compliance, liability for erroneous trades, and the adequacy of existing consumer‑protection frameworks.
- Security Considerations – While private keys remain custodial, the delegation of spend authority to an AI could become a novel attack surface. Robust permissioning and monitoring tools will be essential.
- Interoperability Challenges – Coordinating across multiple layer‑2 solutions (Base, Lightning, potentially others) will require standards that ensure consistent asset handling and settlement finality.
Key Takeaways
- Coinbase’s Agentic Wallets give AI agents the ability to transact on Ethereum’s Base network and, via Lightning Labs’ L402, on Bitcoin’s Lightning Network, all under a programmable permission model.
- The launch builds on the AgentKit framework and the x402 protocol, which have already handled tens of millions of autonomous transactions.
- Industry leaders—from Circle to Google—are betting on a future where AI agents routinely handle crypto and fiat payments, signalling a shift toward fully automated economic agents.
- While the technology unlocks new efficiencies, it also introduces regulatory and security complexities that will need to be addressed as the ecosystem matures.
Coinbase’s move positions it at the forefront of the emerging “agentic finance” niche, where software can act as a financial representative. How quickly the broader market adopts this paradigm—and how regulators respond—will shape the next phase of decentralized finance.
Cointelegraph adheres to its Editorial Policy and encourages readers to independently verify all information.
Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/coinbase-launches-crypto-wallets-built-ai-agents?utm_source=rss_feed&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=rss_partner_inbound
