Coinbase offers two main wallet solutions for developers: Smart Wallet and Wallet API. The Smart Wallet enables seamless onchain experiences by providing your end-users with an intuitive consumer experience. It streamlines user onboarding by minimizing private key management, avoiding app installations, and enabling gasless transactions via Paymaster. Check out this demo of how easy it is to sign up and interact with Smart Wallet. Wallet API is perfect for backend developers that want to spin up wallets programmatically for themselves, AI agents, or their users. It gives developers full control over their UI, does not require end-user onboarding, and can be created in a few lines of code. Here’s a walkthrough of how fast you can get started using our Replit Templates.

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Wallet Comparison Table

Understanding their differences will help you choose the best fit for your application:
FeatureSmart Wallet
(Frontend)		Wallet API
(Backend)
Primary UseEnd-user wallets for connecting to applicationsDeveloper-controlled wallets for programmatic blockchain interactions
ControlEnd-user controlled and managedDeveloper controlled and managed
SecuritySecured by user’s passkey (biometric)Secured via single key (1-of-1) or Multi-Party Computation (2-of-2)
Key Features• Sponsored gas for users using Paymaster
• Spend using Coinbase App balance through Magic Spend
• Use across the onchain ecosystem
• Free USDC sends on Base		• Developer-managed (1-of-1) or MPC (2-of-2) key management
• Fully programmable and customizable
• CDP SDK support for Transfers, Trades, Staking, and Arbitrary Message Signing & Smart Contract Invocations
• USDC Rewards
• Free USDC sends on Base
Example Use Cases• User authentication for applications
• Cross-app interactions
• Collecting NFTs and tokens		• AI agent wallets
• Wallets for your company or your users
• Programmatic asset management (e.g. rewards distribution, one-to-many payouts)
Supported NetworksBase, Arbitrum, Optimism, Zora, Polygon, BNB, Avalanche, EthereumEthereum, Base, Polygon, and Arbitrum

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