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Coinbase Launches Special Accounts for AI Bots to Trade and Pay on Users' Behalf

Coinbase is now letting AI bots trade and make payments on their own through separate accounts. The service combines automation with strict limits and new payment standards.

By Luc Vesters
• 2 min read
Coinbase Launches Special Accounts for AI Bots to Trade and Pay on Users' Behalf

Key Takeaways

  • Coinbase is launching Coinbase for Agents, which lets AI bots trade, manage money, and make payments on users' behalf on their own.
  • The bots get their own accounts and subaccounts, and support the x402 protocol for machine-to-machine payments, including stablecoins like USDC.
  • Users can set limits and allowed actions; the service starts with spot trading and will later expand to stocks, derivatives, and prediction markets.

Coinbase is introducing a new service called 'Coinbase for Agents,' which lets users AI bots that can trade, manage money, and make payments on their behalf on their own. These bots get their own accounts and subaccounts, so they can operate without any manual input from the user. That means users can, for example, give instructions in natural language to automatically rebalance their portfolio or run market strategies.

Innovative AI Integration and Payments

The AI bots can not only trade, but also do market research and operate actively or passively based on specific trading strategies. A key part of this service is built-in support for the x402 protocol, an open AI payment standard developed by Coinbase. This protocol makes it possible for AI agents to make machine-to-machine payments, such as micropayments for access to paid content, premium APIs, or data services.

The x402 protocol is blockchain-agnostic and supports different payment methods, including stablecoins like USDC, giving AI bots flexibility to carry out transactions across different platforms. More than 10,000 online merchants have already integrated the protocol, which is speeding up the adoption of agent-driven commerce and autonomous payments.

Safety and Control for Users

Safety is a core part of Coinbase for Agents' design. Users can let their AI bots operate in isolated sandboxes, which limits access to their main account. They can also set parameters like maximum trade size, allowed interactions, and spending limits. This works a lot like giving an AI agent a separate budget card, where it can only act within preset boundaries.

According to Lincoln Murr, head of AI product at Coinbase, these safety measures were also built to reduce risks, like the scenario where an AI agent would act outside the intended limits. The service starts with access to Coinbase's spot trading, but it will soon expand to stocks, derivatives, and prediction markets.

Relevance for European Crypto Users

The launch of Coinbase for Agents could also matter for European crypto users, because it could change the way people use AI and crypto in a big way. By using AI bots that can trade and make payments on their own, managing crypto portfolios could become more efficient and possibly easier to access. That could be especially interesting in a market where automation and AI are becoming more important, as long as users keep enough control and safety in place. The broader AI rally is also tied to concerns about how long the hype can last; Citadel warns of cooling AI hype ahead of SpaceX IPO previously pointed to rising costs and possible pressure on AI adoption.

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