Your own trading desk, in the chat you already use.
You have a hunch about the market. Turning it into a trade usually means a pile of tabs: charts, news, your portfolio, an order ticket, maybe a spreadsheet to size the position.
Coinbase for Agents puts that work in one conversation. Connect your Coinbase account to your AI, and it can see your crypto, stock, and derivative holdings, dig into research, compare spot and futures, and structure an order you approve.
These five prompts take you from a hunch to a structured trade.
Connect the AI you already use
Coinbase MCP connects any of your favorite AI apps to your Coinbase account. Pick yours in the setup guide or watch the walkthrough:
- Grok: Setup video
- Grok Bot: Setup video
- ChatGPT: Setup video (enable developer mode first)
- Claude: Setup video
- Claude Code: Setup video
- Perplexity Computer: Setup video
- Muse: Share the agent setup guide and follow the sign-in prompt
Or just paste this into your favorite agent:
"Connect to coinbase.com/skill.md" and then follow the steps.
Stay in control
- Choose what your agent can reach. You pick which portfolios it can access when you connect. Or use a separate portfolio to limit the funds it can touch. To trade US futures or stocks, your agent needs access to your default portfolio, which means it can also reach the funds held there.
- Check your agent’s approval settings. Each AI tool handles trade approvals differently, and some may place trades without explicitly asking for your confirmation in the chat. Telling your agent to ask first doesn't replace trade approval settings.
- Set a budget before buying research. Your agent can pay for data using USDC from your Coinbase account. These are real payments, and once a payment goes through, it can't be reversed.
- Disconnect anytime. See here for more information on how to disconnect your tool. Disconnecting stops future access but does not cancel orders already placed.
How to use these prompts: Run them in order, in the same chat, so your agent carries context forward. We use ETH as the example. Swap in whatever you actually trade.
Know where you stand
Before forming a view, see what you're working with.
Prompt 1 · Know where you stand
Look at the crypto holdings in my connected Coinbase portfolio. Show each asset's current value, its percentage of my total crypto holdings, and its price change over the past seven days. Then give me a short briefing on up to three developments from the past 24 hours that relate to my largest holdings, with sources.
What you get back: your whole portfolio in one view, what's been driving it, and the news that matters to you, with sources you can check.
Form a view
Something in that briefing caught your attention. You can pull the thread.
Prompt 2 · Form a view
Take the development from that briefing that matters most to my portfolio. What do the sources actually establish, what's still uncertain, and what would change the picture?
Go deeper: let your agent buy the research
Sometimes free sources run out. Coinbase for Agents can pay for research from providers like Nansen, Arkham and Glassnode using small payments from your USDC balance. Your agent finds the source, shows you the price, and waits for your approval.
Go deeper · Let your agent buy the research
Use
Glassnode ETH futures data
to investigate the open question from our analysis. Show me what data is available, how it would help, and the current price before purchasing.
Wait for my approval.
If the request fails, report the failure and any charge rather than automatically purchasing another source.
What you get back: a sharper answer from data you'd normally need a subscription for, plus exactly what it cost.
Choose how to act on it
You have a view. There's more than one way to express it.
Prompt 3 · Choose how to act on it
Say I think ETH will rise over the next month. Compare two ways I could act on that in my account:
buying spot ETH
, or
buying an ETH dated futures contract
. For each, show how much capital it ties up, how gains and losses scale, what fees apply, when it expires, and how it could go wrong. Lay out the trade-offs.
Analyze the trade first, then wait for my selection.
What you get back: a side-by-side comparison built around your view and your account. The decision stays yours.
Go deeper: stress-test it
Go deeper · Stress-test it
If ETH dropped
10%
before expiry, estimate the loss on this futures position and explain the implications for my margin. Using the account and contract information available, assess the liquidation risk. Tell me what information is missing or uncertain. Compare that with holding spot ETH.
What you get back: the downside, in numbers, before you've risked anything.
Structure the trade
Now turn the idea into an order. Start simple, or build the version a professional trader would.
Simple: a clean entry
Prompt 4 · Simple: a clean entry
Preview buying $200 of spot ETH with a limit order at
[your price]
. Show the estimated fill and fees.
Go deeper: size it to your risk, with exits built in
Go deeper · Size it to your risk, with exits built in
Preview a limit buy for ETH at
[entry price]
, with a take-profit at
[target price]
and a stop-loss at
[stop price]
attached. Size this trade so that if my stop is hit, I lose no more than 1% of my portfolio. Account for estimated fees. Show me the amount I'd buy, the total cost, and the potential gain and loss at those exit prices.
What you get back: a position sized to the risk you chose, with your exit plan set before you enter.
Prices and fees can move between the preview and execution. Read the preview against what you intended before moving on.
Make the move
If the preview matches what you want, give the approval.
Prompt 5 · Make the move
The order looks great, place it as previewed, then tell me the order status, fill and fees.
If anything differs from the preview, stop and ask me first.
Come back to the same chat anytime:
Check in
Check on the order I placed. Has it filled, and are my take-profit and stop-loss still set?
Your first trade is a starting point. But you can make it a routine. Give your agent a recurring brief to revisit your thinking, check what’s changed, and bring the next decision back to you.
Make it a routine
Every Monday, review the thesis and risk limits we used for this trade against my current portfolio and the latest market information. What has changed? What evidence supports or weakens the thesis? If an adjustment would meet the criteria we agreed on, prepare a trade for me to review and explain why. If nothing meets those criteria, say so.
Don't place any orders.
Your desk is open
You started with a hunch. You checked it against your portfolio, researched it, compared how to act on it, sized it to your risk, and placed a structured trade, all in one conversation.
Get started by connecting Coinbase to your AI .
Legal stuff:
For informational purposes only; not investment advice or a recommendation. Trading involves substantial risk, including the potential loss of your entire investment. AI agents may make mistakes or fail. You direct all agent activity and assume all risk for transactions your agents execute, as well as for any use of your data by third-party AI providers. All third-party trademarks belong to their respective owners.
