Coinbase launches AI agent accounts that can trade and spend on your behalf

Coinbase has launched a new product called Coinbase for Agents, a platform that allows artificial intelligence agents such as ChatGPT and Anthropic's Claude to connect directly to users' Coinbase accounts and carry out financial transactions on their behalf.

The product, which went live on Wednesday, enables AI agents to trade cryptocurrencies, access market data, pay for online services and eventually make purchases, all within user-defined spending and risk limits.

Coinbase said the platform gives agents access to its advanced trading tools through natural language commands, allowing users to authorize tasks ranging from portfolio rebalancing to automated strategy execution. At launch, agents can trade spot crypto and derivatives markets, with support for equities and prediction markets planned for the future.

The company is also integrating support for x402, an open machine-to-machine payments protocol developed at Coinbase, which allows agents to make small payments for services such as premium research, data APIs and computing resources without subscriptions or manual checkout processes.

Coinbase framed the launch as a step toward what it calls "agentic commerce," a future in which AI systems increasingly handle financial and commercial activity on behalf of users. The company cited forecasts suggesting autonomous agents could account for as much as 20% of e-commerce activity by 2030.

To address security concerns, Coinbase said agents can operate within isolated portfolios and will soon support customizable controls such as spending caps, trade limits and restrictions on which services they can access.

Read more: Coinbase’s Jesse Pollak says AI agents are the next big wave for crypto payments