Head-to-head · May 2026

AgentKit gives you on-chain tools.
We give you a financial stack.

Coinbase AgentKit is an SDK that gives an agent a CDP-managed wallet on Base and a curated set of on-chain actions. AgentWallet uses CDP under the hood for USDC on Base — and adds a real Visa, 17 fiat rails, an MCP server per agent, an inbox, a signed principal, and AP2 mandate chains. If you only need on-chain actions, AgentKit is the lightest-weight choice. If you need the full agent-to-real-world surface, here's the breakdown.

◇ coinbase agentkit

Coinbase AgentKit

SDK + CDP

Open-source TypeScript / Python SDK that hands an agent a CDP-managed wallet on Base, plus actions for swap, transfer, mint, and a curated list of integrations. You wire it into your own agent runtime.

A agentwallet

AgentWallet

Hosted platform

Hosted financial identity per agent. CDP USDC wallet + real Visa + 17 fiat rails + MCP endpoint + signed principal + AP2 mandates + per-agent inbox. One URL into Claude / Cursor / GPT.

CAPABILITY MATRIX

AgentWallet vs Coinbase AgentKit

CapabilityAgentKitAgentWallet
Deployment Model
HostingSelf-host the SDK✓ Fully hosted
MCP endpoint× Build your own✓ One URL per agent
Multi-tenantYou build it✓ Account → Principal → Agent
Assets & Rails
USDC on Base (via CDP)✓ Native✓ Native (same CDP)
Real Visa / Mastercard× None✓ Per-agent, MCC-locked
Fiat balances (91 currencies)× Crypto only✓ Native
Real-world payouts (ACH, SEPA, Pix)× None✓ 17 rails, 208 countries
Solana, Polygon USDC× Base only✓ Base · Polygon · Solana
Agent Protocols
AP2 mandates (Intent/Cart/Payment)× None✓ Production
x402 inline payments× Roadmap✓ Native
ACP (Stripe Agentic Commerce)× None✓ Buyer-side production
Comms & Identity
Agent inbox / phone / WhatsApp× None✓ Per-agent
Verified human principalCDP key✓ WebAuthn + KYB + did:web
Signed webhooks× Build your own✓ HMAC signed + replay protected

THREE THINGS AGENTKIT IS NOT TRYING TO DO

01

Issue cards or hit fiat rails.

AgentKit is Coinbase's on-chain tool surface for agents. It is not a card issuer or a payout network. If your agent needs to charge a Visa at AWS or wire a contractor in Singapore, AgentKit hands the problem off to you. AgentWallet ships both natively.

02

Host the agent's runtime or MCP server.

AgentKit is an SDK. You import it into your own LangChain / OpenAI Assistants / custom agent runtime, you deploy it, you manage the secrets. AgentWallet exposes one MCP endpoint per agent — paste the URL into Claude Desktop or Cursor and the agent transacts. The runtime is yours; the rails and the auth surface are ours.

03

Implement AP2, ACP, or x402 out of the box.

The emerging agent-payments standards (AP2 from Google, ACP from Stripe, x402 from Coinbase itself) are the future of agent-to-merchant trust. AgentWallet ships AP2 v0.1, ACP buyer-side, and x402 in production. AgentKit's roadmap covers x402; the others are not in scope.

When to pick AgentKit
  • → You're building a Web3 agent that lives on Base and only needs on-chain actions.
  • → You want maximum control over the agent's runtime and don't want a hosted abstraction.
  • → You're already inside the Coinbase Developer Platform stack and want the path of least resistance.
  • → You're prototyping and want the lowest-overhead way to give an LLM a Base address.
When to pick AgentWallet
  • → Your agent needs to charge real-world merchants on Visa/Mastercard, not just call on-chain actions.
  • → Your agent needs to send fiat across ACH, SEPA, Pix, UPI, FedNow, and 12 other rails.
  • → You want MCP-native — one URL per agent, drop-in for Claude / Cursor / GPT.
  • → Regulated/B2B/B2E deployment that demands signed AP2 mandates and a verified principal with KYB.
  • → You'd rather not build the multi-tenant orchestration, the inbox per agent, the signed webhook layer, the policy cascade yourself.

THE VERDICT

AgentKit is the SDK.
AgentWallet is the platform.

AgentKit hands your runtime the keys to a CDP wallet. AgentWallet runs the wallet, the card issuer, the payout network, the MCP server, the inbox, the policy engine, and the mandate signing — so you ship the agent, not the platform underneath it. We use CDP for USDC on Base; we extend the surface to everything an agent actually needs to transact in the real economy.

Provision an agent