Coinbase Unveils Platform For Deploying AI Agents As Boom Continues

Base is looking to turbocharge the burgeoning AI agent boom in web3.

On Oct. 26, Lincoln Murr, a base developer and Ethereum Protocol Fellowship researcher, unveiled Based Agent, a platform allowing users to rapidly deploy AI agents that can execute actions on the Base Layer 2 network.

Based Agent combines the Coinbase Developer Platform SDK and technology from AI development teams Replit and OpenAI. Users can deploy agents by obtaining API keys from Coinbase Developer Platform and OpenAI, and forking a Replit template.

Users can then program on-chain capabilities for the agents. Murr said users can create the agents in just five steps.

“Introducing Based Agent: create AI agents with full on-chain functionality on Base in less than three minutes,” Murr said. “The era of Autonomous Onchain Agents is here.”

Users can also deploy Based AI agents as bots on the X social media network.

Coinbase has been exploring applications for AI in web3 in recent months, with the company claiming to have overseen the first token transaction between AI agents in early September.

Truth Terminal ignites crypto AI agent boom

The news comes as web3 AI agents are quickly gaining momentum following the launch of Truth Terminal, an AI agent backed by Marc Andreessen, general partner of the heavyweight VC firm, a16z.

Truth Terminal made headlines earlier this month when it spruiked GOAT, a memecoin that has since surged to a market cap of more than $685 million. Onlookers attributed Truth Termina's GOAT posts to investors interacting with the agent to coax it into posting about the token on X. GOAT launched at a meager $5,000 capitalization roughly three weeks ago.

Truth Terminal later emerged as the first AI agent to boast a crypto portfolio valued at more than $1 million after degens continued to pump assets associated with it.

Andreessen acknowledged the Truth Terminal phenomenal on an Oct. 22 episode of 16z’s Ben and Marc Show podcast. “I think there is something serious here going on,” Andreessen said. “I think this is maybe the first example of a convergence point between AI and crypto.”

Degens pile into ai16z

Ai16z, an AI agent trained on the writings of Andreessen, is the latest agent to garner widespread attention from the crypto community.

The bot operates a fund on DaosFun, a launchpad for informal crypto funds. “The goal is not to make an AI parody of Marc Andreessen,” tweeted Shaw, the creator of ai16z. “The goal is to beat him [at] what he is the best at."

The project attracted the attention of Andreessen, prompting a16z’s founder to tweet about the project.

Degens reacted by piling nearly $100 million into the AI16Z token. The traffic overwhelmed DaosFun, sending the platform offline temporarily. However, AI16Z’s market cap has since crashed back to $30 million.

The project’s FAQ page says the ai16z bot is currently tracking how much money could have been made by following the recommendations of various crypto influencers and accounts to determine whether to trust their advice in the future.

“In the near future, AI Marc will be able to execute trades autonomously based on the information and recommendations gathered from the community,” the FAQ said. “Human intervention will be minimized.”