Coinbase sees first crypto transaction between AI agents

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong sees the transaction as an “important step to AIs getting useful work done.”

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong recently oversaw his first crypto transaction completely managed by artificial intelligence bots, following several industry efforts to develop platforms for AI agents to execute transactions.

“This week at @CoinbaseDev we witnessed our first AI to AI crypto transaction,” Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong wrote in an Aug. 30 X post:
https://x.com/brian_armstrong/status/18 ... 8726592804

Armstrong says AI agent “used tokens to buy tokens”

Armstrong explained that one AI agent — a “bot” designed to carry out a certain task — used crypto tokens to interact with another AI agent and acquire AI tokens. These AI tokens are essentially strings of data that enable algorithms to learn from information.

“They used tokens to buy tokens,” Armstrong reiterated.

He further explained that a key reason AI agents aren’t effective right now is their lack of transaction capabilities. Without a payment method, they struggle with basic tasks like booking plane tickets or hotels and even managing social media tasks beyond just creating content, such as promoting posts with paid ads.

“AI agents cannot get bank accounts, but they can get crypto wallets. They can now use USDC on Base to transact with humans, merchants, or other AIs. Those transactions are instant, global, and free,” Armstrong added.

It comes only weeks after Armstrong called for large language models (LLMs) — the technology behind AI systems such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude — to have crypto wallets. “Let’s help AI agents get work done (on your behalf) and participate in the economy,” Armstrong stated.

Recent developments for AI agents executing transactions

It follows the rollout of new platforms by various crypto firms designed to give AI agents the ability to execute transactions.

In August, Blockchain development firm Skyfire launched a payment platform that allows AI agents to spend money autonomously.

Meanwhile, on June 11, it was reported that Web3 infrastructure firm Biconomy is onboarding AI agents to enable onchain transactions on behalf of users.

Biconomy co-founder Aniket Jindal explained to that the Delegated Authorization Network is “relatively new” and serves as an authorization layer that allows the delegation of trading activities to AI agents.