Coinbase has unveiled Agentic Wallets, a wallet system aimed at allowing AI agents to conduct financial transactions autonomously.
This product empowers these agents with the ability to spend, earn, and trade digital assets without constant human intervention for each transaction.
The wallet infrastructure is connected to Coinbase’s Developer Platform (CDP) and functions on the x402 protocol. It comes equipped with predefined financial operations, security protocols, and compliance assessment tools.
Operational structure and security framework
Coinbase’s official press release explains that Agentic Wallets operate through non-custodial wallets housed in Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs), ensuring the separation of private keys from the AI agent’s large language model prompts. The infrastructure features programmable spending limits, including session caps and transaction-specific restrictions.
Know Your Transaction (KYT) screening is integrated to block high-risk interactions. Security measures are bolstered by CDP’s existing security framework, which ensures account safety on the Coinbase platform.
The wallet supports operations on Base, Coinbase’s layer-2 blockchain network, facilitating gasless token trading to avoid disruptions due to insufficient network fees.
Technology components and agent capabilities
This infrastructure includes various elements: pre-built financial skills for agents, the x402 protocol for machine-to-machine payments, non-custodial CDP wallets, and a security suite with compliance screening. Developers can interact with this through ‘npx awal’, allowing them to deploy and manage agent capabilities.
The available agent skills cover authentication, funding, sending, trading, and earning functions. These operations are accessible via an agent-wallet-skills repository that developers can integrate for enhanced functionality.
The x402 protocol forms the backbone of the payment infrastructure, enabling API paywalls and programmatic resource access without human involvement. It supports scenarios where agents need to pay for their computational resources, API access, or data streams.
Applications and market positioning
Coinbase’s Agentic Wallets target various application areas. In the decentralized finance sector, AI agents will be able to monitor yield opportunities across different protocols and execute trades autonomously. For machine economies, these agents can acquire services and pay for resources independently using the x402 protocol.
Additional use cases include agents engaging in commerce activities, sending payments to other agents or users, and operating across multiple blockchain networks. The system allows agents to manage positions and implement trading strategies on Base.
Coinbase initially introduced AgentKit over a year ago with the goal of integrating wallet functionality into AI agents. Agentic Wallets now extend this infrastructure, enabling any agent to operate seamlessly with wallet capabilities through standardized tools and protocols.
The CDP Portal offers authentication, usage monitoring, and security oversight for agents using Agentic Wallets. This dashboard maintains a watch on agent operations while preserving their autonomous execution within set parameters.
