Coinbase Unveils AI Bank Accounts for Autonomous Transactions
Coinbase is expanding its services to include financial accounts for artificial intelligence (AI) agents. CEO Brian Armstrong announced that the crypto exchange is building payment infrastructure for AI, essentially giving AI models their own bank account and the ability to manage money autonomously.
The announcement was prompted by a post on X from Ruby on Rails creator David Heinemeier Hansson, who was looking for an 'agentic bank' where a machine could be given a spending limit and permission to take care of things. Armstrong responded immediately, confirming that Coinbase is building the financial account for AI.
The platform's launch followed an aggressive internal optimization campaign at Coinbase. Earlier in 2026, Armstrong cut around 14% of the company's workforce, or roughly 700 employees, replacing them with ultra-compact AI-native pods in which one specialist orchestrates a fleet of AI agents.