Coinbase Bets on AI Agents to Power Payments Growth
Coinbase Bets on AI Agents to Power Payments Growth
Publish Date: 2026-03-18 20:24:00
Source Domain: www.pymnts.com
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Diversification Strategy: Coinbase is focusing on building the infrastructure for artificial intelligence agent payments amid the downturn in its core business, indicating a strategic pivot away from traditional crypto trading revenue.
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USDC and Base Blockchain: Coinbase plans to make the USDC stablecoin and the Base blockchain central to its agentic payments, aligning its technology to facilitate this new payment method.
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Payments Protocol x402: The company created the x402 payments protocol last year to enable websites to accept payments from AI agents, highlighting its commitment to advancing machine payments.
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Industry Collaborations: Coinbase is collaborating with other firms, including World and Stripe, to develop solutions like AgentKit and Machine Payments Protocol (MPP), indicating a broader industry push towards standardized AI agent payments.
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Visa’s Support: Visa’s support for MPP by enabling card-based payments for automated agent transactions shows the mainstream financial industry’s interest in machine payments.
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Introduced Agentic Wallets: In February, Coinbase developed Agentic Wallets—special crypto wallet infrastructure designed for AI agents—which allow these agents to carry out autonomous spending, earning, and trading activities.
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Focus on Agentic Commerce: Coinbase introduced the Payments MCP tool to support agentic commerce, giving AI agents access to on-chain financial tools which reflects the company’s dedication to innovations in AI payment solutions.
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Mature Market Adaptation: Amid the crypto market’s maturing, Coinbase is shifting its revenue sources, diversifying beyond trading fees potentially through new payment solutions and financial services.
