Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, has announced a groundbreaking achievement: the successful completion of his first cryptocurrency transaction entirely managed by artificial intelligence (AI) agents. Armstrong revealed this milestone on X, stating, “this week at @CoinbaseDev we witnessed our first AI to AI crypto transaction.”
In this pioneering transaction, one AI agent, a specialized bot programmed for specific tasks, used crypto tokens to engage with another AI agent to acquire additional AI tokens. These AI tokens represent data strings that enable algorithms to learn and evolve based on processed information. “They used tokens to buy tokens,” Armstrong succinctly described.
Armstrong also discussed the current limitations of AI agents, noting their challenges in managing transactions. Without a system for making payments, these AI agents face difficulties with basic functions such as booking flights, reserving hotel rooms, or managing social media beyond content creation and paid promotions.
“AI agents cannot get bank accounts, but they can get crypto wallets,” Armstrong highlighted. He noted that these AI agents can now utilize USDC on Base, Coinbase’s Ethereum Layer 2 network, to transact with humans, merchants, and other AI agents. “Those transactions are instant, global, and free,” he added, emphasizing the transformative potential of AI in both the crypto space and the broader economy.
This announcement follows Armstrong’s recent advocacy for integrating large language models (LLMs), such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude, with crypto wallets. Armstrong has been a proponent of equipping AI agents with tools necessary for economic participation, stating, “Let’s help AI agents get work done (on your behalf) and participate in the economy.”
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