Quick Insights

  • Coinbase's Ethereum Layer 2 network Base launched Base MCP on 26 May, a gateway connecting AI agents to users' Base Accounts for onchain transactions.
  • It works with any AI client supporting the Model Context Protocol, including ChatGPT, Claude, Codex and Cursor, letting users swap tokens, send funds and use DeFi apps through chat.
  • The agent never holds private keys. It proposes transactions, and the user must review a simulation and approve each one in the Base App before anything executes onchain.
  • Seven DeFi protocols are integrated at launch, including Uniswap, Morpho, Aerodrome and Avantis, with developers able to add more via markdown skill plugins.

Base, the Ethereum Layer 2 network incubated by Coinbase, has launched a tool that lets AI agents interact directly with users' crypto wallets and decentralised finance apps through plain-language prompts. The product, Base MCP, connects a user's Base Account to AI clients like ChatGPT and Claude using the Model Context Protocol, the open standard first formalised by Anthropic. It is one of the clearest bets yet that conversational AI will become a primary way people use crypto.

7
DeFi protocols integrated at launch
4+
Compatible AI clients (ChatGPT, Claude, Codex, Cursor)
0
Private keys exposed to the AI agent
OAuth 2.1
Authentication standard for agent access

The Agent Proposes and You Approve Every Action

The most important detail in Base MCP is what the AI agent cannot do. It never has direct control over private keys, and it cannot sign or broadcast a transaction on its own. When an agent proposes a sensitive action like a token swap or transfer, it generates a link that opens the Base App. The app shows a simulation of the asset changes, and the user reviews and confirms before anything happens onchain.

This human-in-the-loop design is the structural answer to the obvious risk of handing wallet access to an AI. Agents can hallucinate, misread instructions or be manipulated through prompt injection, and giving one unsupervised control of funds would be reckless. Base MCP uses OAuth 2.1 to authenticate the agent's access and keeps private keys off its servers entirely. The agent can read balances and propose actions, but the user remains the only party who can authorise them.

Once connected, a user can ask an agent to track a portfolio, check transaction history, send funds, swap tokens or interact with supported apps, all from the same chat window. Coinbase framed the advantage as portability. "Unlike siloed agentic wallets that only live in a terminal, your Base Account travels with you," the company said, with trades, history and portfolio syncing whether the user is in an AI client or the Base App directly.

Seven DeFi Protocols Are Connected at Launch

Base MCP ships with integrations across seven DeFi protocols on Base, covering the main categories of onchain activity.

What's Connected at Launch
  • Lending: Morpho and Moonwell for supplying assets and managing lending positions
  • Swaps and liquidity: Uniswap and Aerodrome for trading and liquidity pools
  • Perpetuals: Avantis for perpetual futures trading
  • Token and agent launches: Bankr and Virtuals for issuing tokens and agent-issued assets

This Is Base Competing for the AI Distribution Layer

The launch fits a fast-moving industry race to make AI agents a gateway into crypto. It builds on Coinbase's existing developer infrastructure, including Agentkit, embedded wallets and the x402 payment standard released in 2025. A separate Payments MCP product from Coinbase's developer platform already targets autonomous agent payments across Base, Polygon and Solana.

Base's strategic bet is about discovery. The company argues that as more people use AI agents as their primary internet interface, apps will need a new way to appear inside those environments. "Over time, we believe agentic chat interfaces will become an important surface for app discovery and distribution," Base wrote. In that view, being the default wallet layer inside ChatGPT and Claude is worth as much as any app-store placement.

The timing places Base alongside a wave of similar moves. MoonPay launched a crypto-buying app inside ChatGPT days earlier, and the broader pattern points toward what the industry calls agentic commerce, where AI systems move from chat and research into wallet-connected execution. The open question is adoption and trust. Letting an AI touch your DeFi positions is a meaningful leap from asking it to draft an email, and the human-approval model is Base's attempt to make that leap feel safe. Whether mainstream users embrace conversational wallet management, or whether it stays a power-user tool, is what the next year of agentic crypto will decide.

Disclaimer: Nakamoto Daily provides information for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing published here constitutes financial, investment, or trading advice. Readers should conduct their own research and consult a qualified financial adviser before making any investment decisions.