Coinbase Unveils Financial Infrastructure for Autonomous AI Systems
Coinbase is developing financial infrastructure for artificial intelligence (AI) systems. According to Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, the exchange is building 'payment infrastructure for AI' through its new platform called Coinbase for Agents.
This platform will allow AI models to manage their own finances autonomously, much like a human would with a bank account. The user sets daily spending limits and maximum transaction sizes, after which the AI can operate independently.
The announcement was sparked by a tweet from Ruby on Rails creator David Heinemeier Hansson (DHH), who asked for an 'agentic bank' where a machine could be given a spending limit and permission to manage money on its own.
Armstrong confirmed in his response that Coinbase is indeed building the financial account for AI. He also mentioned that the platform's launch was preceded by internal optimization efforts, including cutting 14% of the company's workforce (around 700 employees) and replacing them with AI-native pods.