Meet Based Agent by Coinbase
Coinbase, in a significant fusion of AI and blockchain technology, has announced ‘Based Agent’ to enable crypto users to build bespoke AI agents with crypto wallets in under 3 minutes.
Its CEO, Brian Armstrong, has been vocal about making autonomous agents a key part of crypto, a vision that’s being furthered with this development that hopes to add ease in creating such AI agents on top of blockchain.
Based Agent, described as a template for quickly creating AI agents or bots, that can perform various on-chain tasks, will be made available via an announcement from Coinbase developer Lincoln Murr.
Completing trades, managing swaps, staking or even registering unique blockchain-based identities—this AI agent template is an all-in-one solution that meshes multiple features into one easy-to-use platform.
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A Closer Look at Based Agent
The Based Agent template is a flexible and highly capable tool. Once an AI agent is set up, it can interact with smart contracts, execute swaps, make trades, and manage staking.
Users can even personalize their agent by registering a “base name,” which provides an additional layer of identity and functionality on-chain.
With a wallet tied to the AI agent, users can start transactions immediately, leveraging Coinbase’s infrastructure for efficient crypto management.
This three-minute setup is powered by Coinbase’s SDK and backed by OpenAI and Replit, reflecting Coinbase’s ongoing collaboration with leaders in AI and software.
The template operates on Replit’s code-sharing platform, where users need only to fork the existing template, plug in an API key from both Coinbase’s developer program and OpenAI, and they’re set to go.
Brian Armstrong’s Vision
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has made his case to use AI agents in a crypto context. Recently, we’ve seen him interact on X (formerly Twitter) about letting AI-toting bots have their own wallets so that they can spend autonomously. He threw this idea out at Truth Terminal, an AI chatbot, and wondered whether it would like a crypto wallet that it solely owns, which would allow the AI to send and receive transactions independently.
In August, Armstrong completed the first crypto transaction entirely overseen by AI bots — a watershed moment in the combination of artificial intelligence and crypto use. Armstrong’s prediction seems to match up with some more that’s been said within the industry about how AI might eventually process almost all of the blockchain transactions.
Why a 3-Minute Setup is a Game Changer
Based Agent is exponentially useful for crypto users. The fast setup time offers both convenience and never-before-seen accessibility.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong echoed this sentiment, saying, “With just a Coinbase API key, OpenAI API key and Replit template, you can get started automating your crypto in no time.”
Armstrong’s case for AI agents dates up even further: earlier this month, he bestowed the new Truth Terminal—an AI chatbot of sorts—on X with a crypto wallet of its own so that it can process autonomous transactions.
It looks like Coinbase imagines users not only generating their own AI agents but also ‘interacting with other AIs directly on the blockchain’.
The Rise of On-Chain AI Agents
We are still in the early days of artificial intelligence-driven agents executing blockchain transactions on their own, but Based Agent by Coinbase ushers in a new wave of experimentation.
In September, for example, Coinbase’s Base creator Jesse Pollak rolled out “Luna,” an AI agent that automatically “tipped” anyone it interacted with on X.
The idea behind Luna showed how these agents could start blockchain transactions without human input, which further opens up a whole new world of self-sufficient user-owned bots and AI-driven automations to complete tasks otherwise done by humans.
James Ross, the founder of the Mode Network, believes that more than 80% of all blockchain transactions could be powered by AI in April 2025. Such a change to transactions being controlled by bots may alter the way in which personal wallets, transactions and on-chain interactions operate across platforms.
How to Get Started with Based Agent?
To help more investors using Based Agent, Coinbase executive Ron Lichini said his firm has radically simplified the setup process so that even non-developers with limited tech savvy can run an instance.
It simply needs a new Coinbase API key, an OpenAI key, and the Replit template. By following these steps, users can start building a fully autonomous on-chain AI agent.
What’s Next for AI Agents on Coinbase’s Platform?
And based agent is only the start. Coinbase prepares to enable a new era where AI and blockchain live together naturally.
Through the work of Murr and Armstrong, Based Agent allows users to take this template from Based Agent in order for them to customize AI bots that operate across their respective crypto wallets along with process transactions, as well as communicate with other AI-driven agents. The collaboration between Coinbase, OpenAI, and Replit demonstrates a shared vision of integrating AI-based implementations into the blockchain experience.
With an increasing number of people investing their time and capital to create processes that take away human labor, Coinbase’s Based Agent is a gift that, even though automated in 180 seconds, connects the dots between real-life use-cases across the full spectrum of #Blockchain and natively sophisticated AI.
