Coinbase has introduced Agentic Wallets, a wallet infrastructure designed to enable AI agents to execute financial transactions autonomously.
Following the announcement, the product provides agents with capabilities to spend, earn, and trade digital assets without requiring human approval for each transaction.
The wallet infrastructure integrates with the Coinbase Developer Platform (CDP) and operates on the x402 protocol. The system also includes pre-built financial operations, security controls, and compliance screening tools.
Operational structure and security framework
According to the official press release, Agentic Wallets function through non-custodial wallets secured in Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs), maintaining separation between private keys and the agent's large language model prompts. The infrastructure includes programmable spending limits, with controls for session caps and transaction-level restrictions.
The system incorporates Know Your Transaction (KYT) screening to block interactions categorised as high-risk. Security measures are provided through CDP's existing infrastructure, which the company notes secures accounts on the Coinbase platform.
The wallet infrastructure supports operations on Base, Coinbase's layer-2 blockchain network, enabling gasless trading for tokens on that network. This functionality is intended to prevent agents from halting operations due to insufficient network fees.
Technology components and agent capabilities
The infrastructure is set to include several components: agent skills for pre-built financial operations, the x402 protocol for machine-to-machine payments, CDP wallets for non-custodial infrastructure, and a security suite with compliance screening. A command-line interface, accessed through 'npx awal', allows developers to deploy and manage agent capabilities.
Available agent skills include authentication, funding, sending, trading, and earning functions. These operations are accessible through an agent-wallet-skills repository, which developers can integrate to extend agent functionality.
The x402 protocol underpins the payment infrastructure, enabling API paywalls and programmatic resource access without human intervention. This protocol is positioned to support use cases where agents pay for their own computational resources, API access, and data streams.
Applications and market positioning
According to the announcement, the infrastructure will target several application categories. In decentralised finance, agents will be enabled to monitor yield opportunities across protocols and execute trades autonomously, and for machine economies, agents will have the possibility to acquire services and pay for resources independently using the x402 protocol.
Additional use cases include agents participating in commerce activities, sending payments to other agents or users, and operating across multiple blockchain networks. The system allows agents to manage positions and execute strategies on Base.
Coinbase initially launched AgentKit over a year ago, in 2024, in order to integrate wallet functionality into agents. Agentic Wallets represents an expansion of that infrastructure, now enabling any agent to operate with wallet capabilities through standardised tools and protocols.
The CDP Portal provides authentication, usage telemetry, and security monitoring for agents operating with Agentic Wallets. This dashboard allows oversight of agent operations while maintaining their autonomous execution capabilities within defined parameters.
