Coinbase just launched Coinbase for Agents, a tool that connects AI agents directly to user accounts to autonomously trade and make payments within custom limits. Available via MCP for ChatGPT and Claude or a CLI for developer terminals, it currently supports crypto spot and derivatives. Giving AI agents direct, bounded access to real capital marks a major milestone for autonomous finance.
Coinbase just laid off roughly 14% of its workforce as part of a sweeping push to become an AI-native organization. CEO Brian Armstrong noted that AI tools now allow engineers to ship in days what used to take weeks, prompting the company to flatten management layers, eliminate pure managers, and experiment with one-person teams commanding agent fleets.
Coinbase just launched Agentic Wallets, an infrastructure that lets autonomous AI agents hold, spend, and trade crypto 24/7. Built on Base and the x402 payment protocol, these agents can rebalance liquidity positions, purchase compute, and pay for API keys under user-set rules without manual approval.
Coinbase just launched Payments MCP, a framework that equips models like Claude, Gemini, and Codex with crypto wallets and stablecoin rails without requiring API keys. Running locally on desktop, agents can now pay for compute or paywalled data via the x402 protocol, all within user-set spending limits.
Coinbase just partnered with Perplexity to feed real-time crypto market data, including its COIN50 index, directly into the AI search engine and its new Comet browser. Phase one lets users drill into price moves inside market analysis, with full conversational trading screeners coming next. Why it matters: Perplexity revealed crypto queries now match equities, signaling how quickly everyday financial research is turning conversational.
Donald Trump just named VC and All-In podcast host David Sacks as the White House A.I. & Crypto Czar. Sacks will steer federal policy around artificial intelligence and crypto while also chairing the President's Council of Advisors for Science and Technology. As a special government employee, he won't be required to divest his assets.
OpenAI just hired its first chief marketing officer, bringing on Coinbase veteran Kate Rouch to steer its global brand. While OpenAI previously reached 250 million weekly active users without major marketing campaigns, the move signals a shift toward aggressive commercialization as competition from Google and Anthropic mounts. Why it matters: The generative AI race is rapidly turning into an enterprise and consumer brand battle.
Coinbase just launched Based Agent, a template that lets users build their own AI agent equipped with a crypto wallet in under three minutes. Built alongside OpenAI and Replit, the agent can autonomously execute trades, token swaps, and staking via smart contracts. Basically, Coinbase wants to make giving an AI bot its own bank account effortless.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong just revealed the company's first AI-to-AI crypto transaction, where an autonomous bot used tokens to purchase learning data from another bot. Armstrong pointed out that while AI agents can't open traditional bank accounts, giving them crypto wallets on Base lets them instantly pay and participate in the real economy.
