‹ Back

Coinbase Launches Agentic Wallets for AI Agents

 

 

Coinbase has introduced Agentic Wallets, a purpose built wallet infrastructure designed to enable artificial intelligence, AI, agents to autonomously manage digital assets, execute transactions, and participate in decentralized finance, DeFi, and machine to machine commerce.

 

Announced on February 11, 2026, the rollout aims to provide secure, programmable spending controls and compliance features to address escalating security concerns within the rapidly evolving ecosystem of autonomous AI software.

 

Wallet Infrastructure Tailored for Autonomous Agents

 

Coinbase’s latest development, Agentic Wallets, represents the company’s first wallet product specifically aligned with AI agents rather than human end users or standard software frameworks. Built on Base, Coinbase’s Ethereum layer 2 network, the infrastructure integrates with the firm’s existing custody and compliance systems, and advanced payments protocol known as x402, which has processed over 50 million machine to machine transactions, according to company disclosures.

 

This protocol facilitates autonomous payments, API billings, and programmatic access to digital resources without requiring human intervention, positioning Agentic Wallets as core infrastructure for AI driven economic activity.

 

Beyond enabling basic transfer of funds, Agentic Wallets support a range of operations such as holding stablecoins, swapping tokens, paying for services, and gasless trading on Base. Developers can deploy and configure wallets in minutes via command line interfaces, which include pre built skill libraries for functions like Authenticate, Fund, Send, Trade, and Earn, thus abstracting much of the complexity previously associated with writing transaction logic from scratch.

 

Built In Protections and Guardrails

 

Security remains a central emphasis of the new wallet infrastructure. Coinbase has incorporated a range of built in safeguards to mitigate risks associated with autonomous software handling financial assets. These include programmable session and transaction limits, enclave isolation of private keys, and compliance screening powered by Coinbase’s Know Your Transaction, KYT, tools, ensuring high risk transactions are automatically blocked. Importantly, private keys are stored within secure Coinbase execution environments and are not directly exposed to the operating AI agent, minimizing the risk of prompt corruption or unauthorized access.

 

According to Coinbase engineering leadership, the design addresses specific security vulnerabilities observed in earlier agent frameworks, where private keys were stored on local disks and could be exploited or lost due to agent errors. Isolation of keys from agent logic is intended to significantly reduce susceptibility to malicious prompt injection attacks and other vector exploits, with authentication handled via local session keys and email one time passwords.

 

Context Within Broader AI and Crypto Integration

 

The launch of Agentic Wallets arrives amid broader industry efforts to integrate AI capabilities with blockchain infrastructure. Coinbase has emphasized that traditional banking systems are not optimized for autonomous software payments, whereas blockchain and crypto rails are more adaptable to such use cases. By enabling AI agents to autonomously transact and interact with digital ecosystems, Coinbase positions its infrastructure as a foundational bridge between autonomous software development and decentralized digital commerce.

 

Company representatives have outlined potential applications ranging from 24, 7 DeFi portfolio management and automated trading to agents acquiring compute resources, API access, and engaging in on chain economic activities previously unavailable without direct human authorization. While the initial focus is on developers familiar with command line interfaces, Coinbase indicates that broader network support beyond Base and more accessible tooling may follow as the technology matures.

 

Developer Adoption and Use Cases

 

Early reactions from industry observers suggest that Agentic Wallets could catalyze a new class of autonomous blockchain applications. Use cases include AI systems dynamically monitoring external markets and liquidity conditions, executing actions within predefined risk parameters, and engaging in decentralized economic ecosystems without constant human oversight. These capabilities may facilitate more complex machine to machine interactions and autonomous financial workflows, though adoption and integration remain in the early stages.

 

Coinbase’s move reflects a broader strategic emphasis on positioning crypto infrastructure as enabling technologies for next generation software paradigms, where autonomous AI agents not only process information but also transact and make economic decisions within defined structural boundaries.