Coinbase Bets on AI Wallets: Machines Now Spending Crypto

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In this week’s quiet salon of the digital age, Coinbase unveiled features that could let AI agents carry out crypto transactions, as if the machines themselves suddenly acquired a taste for the mercantile arts. Following suit, other developers offered updates tied to AI-powered payments, because what is progress if not a parade of eager imitators?

With many AI tokens ending the week in the green, one wonders if we have reached a tipping point in a narrative that already breathes with the promise of fortune and the aroma of risk.

Agentic wallets for autonomous AI payments

Coinbase has unveiled Agentic Wallets, a new wallet infrastructure designed specifically for AI agents. The goal is to grant AI systems the power to hold, spend, earn and trade crypto on their own, without waiting for human approval at every turn, as if progress itself could dispense with the small talk of consent.

Today’s AI agents can advise on trades or identify services they need, but they cannot execute payments independently. With this project, the team says,

“The next generation of agents won’t just advise – they’ll act.”

Built upon Coinbase’s own scaffolding and powered by the x402 payments protocol (which has already processed over 50 million transactions), the system would reportedly enable machine-to-machine crypto payments. It would also facilitate gasless trading on Base and programmable financial actions, as if the future were simply a ledger waiting to be filled.

Developers may set session caps and transaction limits, while private keys remain secure within Coinbase’s fortress-like infrastructure. Built-in compliance tools will also screen transactions automatically, because what is progress without a few rules to keep the chaos at bay?

Here’s more!

Lightning Labs also announced a new set of tools that would help AI agents transact directly over the Bitcoin [BTC] Lightning Network, as if the thunderous tempo of the blockchain could be harnessed by a polite mind.

Their update will include support for automatic L402 payments, node operations via MCP, remote key signing for added security, and scoped spending controls, because even progress needs a clear bulwark against the impetuous impulse to overspend.

Meanwhile, activity on Ethereum [ETH] is heating up too.

In fact, over 13,000 AI agents registered on-chain in a single day following the launch of ERC-8004. That’s the new standard that gives agents portable identities and a built-in trust layer, as if identity now comes with a passport and a wink.

Tokens turn green as narrative catches steam

Several major AI tokens finished the week in positive territory, even if the top tokens dipped a touch.

KITE climbed by nearly 15% over the past seven days, while tokenbot [CLANKER] rose more than 15%. SIREN gained over 12%, and Unibase [UB] rose by more than 9% weekly.

Now, some tokens remain down on shorter time frames. Yet the broader trend hinted that investors might be stepping in early for what could become the next major growth story, or at least a very well-orchestrated spectacle.

Final Thoughts

  • Coinbase’s Agentic Wallets and Lightning’s AI payment tools will lend the AI-crypto tale a certain polish this year.
  • With 13,000 AI agents registering on Ethereum in a single day, the economy may already be taking its first careful breaths.

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2026-02-12 10:32