Coinbase Grants AI Agents Access to Cryptocurrency Payments

Coinbase launches Payments MCP for AI access to crypto wallets and payments.

Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States, has launched the Payments MCP system, allowing language models like Anthropic’s Claude and Google’s Gemini to access crypto wallets, fiat gateways, and payments.

The solution was developed by the Coinbase Developer Platform division. The service provides AI agents with “the same financial on-chain tools as humans—from wallets and fiat gateways to stablecoin payments.”

“We still believe that every agent deserves to have its own wallet,” the announcement states.

Coinbase’s Vice President of Business Development, Dan Kim, and the Head of Engineering at Coinbase Developer Platform, Eric Reppel, noted that crypto networks and stablecoins are the ideal infrastructure for “agent commerce.”

“They operate at the speed of code, integrate seamlessly with API, and allow autonomous agents to work without human friction,” the developers wrote.

Payments MCP can be run locally on a computer, accessed with minimal user involvement, and customized for specific agent tasks.

Other features include:

• creating a wallet and logging in via email—without API keys and developer setup;
• calibration through a user-friendly interface—agent configuration, spending limits, transaction management;
• x402 integration—enables searching for APIs and services that the agent can pay for directly in the interface.

Payments MCP has been tested on Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Codex, Gemini, and Cherry Studio. Support for other models will be added later.

AI Development—A Loss for Banks

According to McKinsey, banks risk losing up to $170 billion in profits if they do not adapt their business models to the new trend of customers using artificial intelligence for personal finance management, as reported by Bloomberg.

The report notes that AI bots will lead people to keep less money in low-yield accounts.

“Imagine having an agent that says, ‘Hey, you can save $2,000 a year just by moving your money to another account.’ This eliminates a significant amount of inertia present in the current system,” explained McKinsey senior partner Pradip Patiath.

Experts indicate that consumers hold $23 trillion out of $70 trillion in accounts with virtually zero interest rates, while the remaining funds yield minimal income.

Back in May, Coinbase introduced the x402 tool for online payments. It is designed for transferring stablecoins via standard internet protocols and allows AI agents to conduct autonomous transactions.