AI Agent first to have autonomous wallet, Coinbase and Solana compete for new narrative

Coinbase Launches Agentic Wallets, an on-chain wallet solution designed specifically for AI Agents, allowing AI Agents to independently hold funds and perform on-chain operations without human intervention. The official Solana account then retweeted lobster.cash, developed by Crossmint—a Solana-based autonomous payment solution for AI Agents.

Coinbase Agentic Wallets: Breaking the “Brain Without Hands” Dilemma

AI Agents have long faced a structural limitation: they can analyze markets, identify arbitrage opportunities, and suggest decisions, but due to a lack of on-chain identity and fund management capabilities, they can only stay at the “advisory level” and cannot execute operations independently. Agentic Wallets aim to fundamentally change this situation.

Unlike the AgentKit launched in November 2024 (which requires developer customization and embedding wallets into agent programs), Agentic Wallets adopt a plug-and-play design—anyone can set up a fully functional financial wallet for their AI Agent in about 2 minutes by executing a few commands.

In terms of security, Agentic Wallets include programmable spending limits, such as maximum expenditure per session, per-transaction amount limits, private key isolation protections, and automatic filtering and blocking of high-risk transactions. All assets operate on the Base chain, and AI Agent operations on Base are gas-free.

Solana Follow-up: The Emerging Narrative of Agent Economy

After Coinbase’s announcement, the official Solana account quickly retweeted lobster.cash from Crossmint—its functionality overlaps significantly with Agentic Wallets, enabling AI Agents to manage funds autonomously on Solana. The rapid deployment by these two ecosystems is making autonomous payment infrastructure for AI Agents a new core narrative in crypto, following DeFi, NFTs, and Meme Coins.

Four Main Directions for Coinbase’s On-Chain AI Agent Applications

Autonomous DeFi: AI Agents monitor cross-protocol liquidity mining, manage positions, and execute trades on Base 24/7 based on human-set risk control strategies.

Agent Trading: Using the x402 protocol, AI Agents autonomously purchase computing resources, access advanced data streams, and pay fees, building a self-sufficient agent service ecosystem.

Agent Commerce: AI Agents participate in creator economy activities, making payments to other agents or users, and tokenizing their generated content.

Multi-Chain Operations: While wallets are based on the Base chain, AI Agents can manage multi-chain assets and execute strategies across chains autonomously.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the fundamental difference between Agentic Wallets and AgentKit?

AgentKit (launched in November 2024) is a developer toolkit requiring customization to enable AI Agents with wallet functionality, with a higher technical barrier. In contrast, Agentic Wallets are plug-and-play, allowing non-technical users to complete setup in about 2 minutes, significantly lowering the barrier to deploying financial capabilities for AI Agents.

How do Agentic Wallets prevent AI Agents from excessive autonomy leading to fund loss?

Agentic Wallets incorporate multiple security controls, including maximum expenditure per session, per-transaction amount limits, private key isolation protections, and automatic filtering and blocking of high-risk transactions, ensuring that AI Agent fund operations stay within user-defined boundaries.

What is AI Agent economy, and why is it considered the next major narrative in crypto?

AI Agent economy refers to an ecosystem where AI Agents can autonomously hold funds, perform on-chain operations, and participate in real economic activities. With the launch of Coinbase’s Agentic Wallets and Solana’s lobster.cash, AI Agents are evolving from “advisors” to “autonomous executors,” opening new application directions for DeFi, digital commerce, and multi-chain asset management.