TL;DR
- Coinbase Wallet is now the Base App, offering seamless in-feed trading, fee-free USDC tap-to-pay, staking, and swaps, all in one on-chain gateway.
- The app doubles as a social network: every post can be minted as an on-chain token, with mini-apps, prediction markets, and weekly rewards powering a creator-driven DeFi ecosystem.
- Built-in XMTP messaging and AI agents let users transact and get real-time insights in private chats, while Flashblocks supercharge the network with 200 ms block times.
Coinbase has flipped the script on crypto wallets by rebranding its flagship Coinbase Wallet into the Base App, an integrated “everything” platform that blends trading, payments, social features, and messaging into one seamless experience. Unveiled at the “A New Day One” event in Los Angeles, the Base App moves beyond being a mere repository for tokens, staking, and DeFi interactions.
It’s positioned as a single gateway for on-chain activities, designed to lower the barrier for both seasoned traders and crypto newcomers.
An Everything App Emerges
At its core, the Base App lets users buy, sell, and swap hundreds of cryptocurrencies directly within the social feed, without switching between tabs or separate exchanges. Every portfolio action sits alongside a Farcaster-powered timeline, showing which assets friends are trading in real time.
"How can we start to assemble these building blocks into a new app that creates the onchain economy for a billion people?" – @brian_armstrong pic.twitter.com/CKOpzG5QYx
— Base (@base) July 16, 2025
Coinbase focuses on NFC-enabled USDC tap-to-pay, highlighting stablecoin payments: users can pay with no fees at participating merchants, earn up to 4.1% APY on their USDC, and use Base Pay for quick checkout on sites like Shopify.
Social Trading and Creator Economy
Moving past pure finance, the Base App doubles as a social network for creators and traders. Each post becomes its own on-chain token via Zora, meaning artists and writers can mint, sell, and tip content without minimum follower counts or ad deals.
Top contributors earn weekly rewards, and embedded mini-apps, from games to prediction markets, populate the feed. Creators own their audiences, monetizing engagement directly and forging a new blend of social media and DeFi.
Seamless Messaging and AI Assistants
End-to-end encrypted messaging comes baked in through the XMTP protocol. Chats aren’t just for chit-chat; they’re transactional hubs where users can send crypto, balance portfolios, and interact with AI agents like Bankr for real-time trading advice. Whether coordinating a group airdrop or pinging a mini-app for yield farming tips, everything stays on-chain and private, dismantling the silos of traditional messaging and finance tools.
Blazing-Fast Performance with Flashblocks
Coinbase enhanced its Base Chain with Flashblocks, reducing block times from two seconds to only 200 milliseconds. This tenfold speed boost cements Base as one of the fastest EVM-compatible networks today, enabling frictionless gaming, high-frequency trades, and instant social updates.
