Base joins Ethereum, Tron, others in betting big on AI agent future

Coinbase's Ethereum layer-2 network Base said it is upgrading key systems in preparation for an AI agent economy as part of its newly released 2026 roadmap, joining the race to support the growing agentic AI ecosystem.

AI agents are discovering crypto markets as their native economy, “building, owning, and trading alongside us,” said Base in its 2026 mission, vision, and strategy update on Tuesday.

Base added that its goal is to build a foundation for an AI agent economy by focusing on building global markets, scaling payments and stablecoins and attracting more developers.

Base joins a number of blockchains and companies looking to build new tech and infrastructure to support agentic AI payments, including Ethereum, Tron, Visa and Stripe.

It highlighted real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, stablecoins, and prediction markets as being key growth areas in 2026. RWA onchain value has surged by 240% over the past 12 months, while stablecoin market capitalization is up 32%, according to RWA.xyz.

Base targets three chain upgrade areas

Base said it plans to upgrade its app and blockchain to a “purpose-built market infrastructure,” including new smart accounts, tokens, and scaling solutions.

The network said it is also looking to bring every major asset and market to the chain, including equities, commodities with native issuance, tokenization, prediction markets, perpetuals, and spot trading.

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These upgrades will be specifically for AI agents, it stated, with “agent-native smart accounts,” command line interface (CLI) and model context protocol (MCP) access, and online payment protocols such as Coinbase’s x402 to “help agents do anything with money.”

Ethereum, Visa and Tron are going all in on AI

The Ethereum Foundation launched the “dAI Team” in September, which aims to make the network the “preferred settlement and coordination layer” for AI agents and the machine economy, while Solana has previously claimed to be the number one blockchain for agentic payment volume.

The current top facilitator of x402 payments is Coinbase, with 15,777 transactions over the past 24 hours, according to x402scan.

Earlier this month, Visa and Stripe-backed Tempo unveiled agentic AI tools, giving agents the ability to make online payments autonomously.

Meanwhile, the Tron DAO scaled its AI fund to $1 billion last week, targeting investments and acquisitions of early-stage startups building core infrastructure for the agentic economy.

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