Base App

Base App (formerly Coinbase Wallet) is Coinbase's next-generation smart, self-custody wallet purpose-built for the Base network and the wider Ethereum L2 ecosystem. Relaunched and rebranded in 2025, Base App replaces the classic Coinbase Wallet product with an account-abstraction-powered experience that ditches seed phrases in favour of passkeys, sponsors gas fees for seamless onboarding, and lets you carry your wallet, identity and balances across thousands of onchain apps.

Built by Coinbase and deeply integrated with the Base Layer 2 — the leading Ethereum L2 by total value locked — Base App is designed for global, 24/7, sub-second transactions that cost fractions of a cent. Whether you're trading tokens on Aerodrome, collecting NFTs on Zora, sending USDC in a chat, or earning rewards on your idle stablecoins, Base App unifies discovery, trading and payments into a single mobile and web experience.

What sets Base App apart from earlier self-custody wallets is the combination of smart-account architecture (ERC-4337) with Coinbase's institutional-grade infrastructure. New users can create a free, secure, self-custody wallet in seconds using a passkey — no recovery phrase to write down, no browser extension to install. Existing Coinbase Wallet holders can import their smart wallet and pick up exactly where they left off, preserving their address, assets, and history.

Base App is the consumer face of Coinbase's onchain strategy: a bridge rather than an island, interoperable across chains, and open to everyone from first-time crypto buyers to institutions moving billions through Base.

Passkey-based onboarding — no seed phrase required

Base App replaces the friction of writing down and safeguarding a 12-word recovery phrase with passkeys backed by your device's secure enclave. Creating a wallet takes a few seconds, and sign-ins on new devices use Face ID, Touch ID or your device PIN. Existing Coinbase Wallet users can import their smart wallet to keep the same address and assets.

Smart-account architecture (ERC-4337)

Base App is built as an ERC-4337 smart-contract wallet rather than a legacy EOA. That unlocks account-abstraction features out of the box:

• Gas sponsorship via paymasters — supported apps and swaps can cover gas, so you never see an "insufficient balance to pay gas" error when trying your first transaction.
• Batched transactions — approve, swap and receive in a single signature instead of three separate prompts.
• Session keys & spend limits — grant a dApp permission to spend up to a chosen cap for a set period without re-signing every action.

Cross-app portability

Your wallet, onchain identity, balances and NFT collection travel with you across thousands of Base and EVM-compatible apps. Sign in to a dApp from your browser and it recognises your Base App wallet immediately — no new wallet per app, no extension install.

Trade & Earn

The new Base mode turns Base App into a full trading and discovery experience. Buy with card, bank transfer or your Coinbase account balance; swap tokens with the low fees and deep liquidity of Base's onchain markets; and track portfolio performance, P&L and realtime position values in one place. Eligible US users can earn rewards simply for holding USDC in their Base App wallet.

Send money instantly in messages

Base App pairs the wallet with a built-in messenger so you can send and request crypto in chat, settle a dinner bill, or tip creators — settled onchain in seconds for a fraction of a cent per transfer.

Automatic asset management

NFTs and other digital assets you acquire — minted, bought, or earned — are automatically added to your secure wallet and visible in your collection. Token balances, recent activity and transaction history are organised in a companion web app at wallet.coinbase.com.

Multi-platform access

Base App runs natively on iOS, Android and the web, with a browser experience accessible directly from any modern browser — no extension required. Your wallet syncs across every device you sign in on.

Self-custody by design

Base App is a self-custody wallet: the private keys that control your assets are generated and stored on your device, never on Coinbase's servers. Coinbase cannot move, freeze, or access your funds. Recovery is handled cryptographically through passkeys and account-recovery guardians built into the smart-account model — no custodian holds your keys.

Passkey & secure-enclave protection

Instead of a text seed phrase, Base App uses WebAuthn passkeys anchored in your device's secure enclave or OS-level keystore. Biometric unlock (Face ID / Touch ID) gates every transaction, and sign-in to a new device requires a verified recovery path — dramatically reducing the most common cause of wallet loss: a misplaced or photographed seed phrase.

Institutional-grade infrastructure

Base runs on the same security foundation that powers Coinbase's exchange and custody products, used by institutions holding billions in assets. The Base L2 settles to Ethereum and inherits Ethereum's battle-tested security and validator decentralisation, while Coinbase's monitoring, fraud tooling and bug-bounty programmes extend across the Base App surface.

Transaction-level safeguards

• Per-transaction biometric confirmation — every signature requires Face ID / Touch ID / PIN.
• Spend limits & session keys — grant dApps bounded, time-limited permissions rather than blanket token approvals.
• Simulated transactions — you see what a transaction will do, and the expected balance change, before you sign.
• Address book & known-dapp checks — recurring counterparties and verified contracts surface cleanly to reduce phishing risk.

Open & auditable

The smart-account contracts Base App deploys follow the open ERC-4337 / Coinbase Smart Wallet standards, which are publicly audited and independently reviewable. Anyone can verify the logic that holds their funds.

The wallet is free

Creating and using a Base App wallet is completely free. There is no subscription, no monthly fee, and no charge to hold assets, receive tokens, or connect to dApps.

You only pay gas — and gas is tiny

Transactions on Base settle for fractions of a cent, and on the wider set of supported L2s fees are a few cents rather than the dollars typical of Ethereum mainnet. In many first-time and partner-app flows the gas itself is sponsored by a paymaster, so the user pays nothing at all to make their first onchain action.

Swap & buy fees

• Onchain swaps — routed through Base's decentralised exchanges (Aerodrome, Uniswap and others); you pay the LP/network fee of the route plus a small Coinbase Wallet service fee shown transparently in the quote.
• Cash-to-crypto purchases — via Coinbase's fiat rails or integrated on-ramps (Moonpay, Transak); card and bank fees from the payment processor are disclosed before confirmation.

Nobody holds your funds hostage

Because Base App is non-custodial, there are no withdrawal fees from the wallet side and no platform-imposed lock-ups. You can move assets to another wallet or to a Coinbase exchange account at any time, paying only the network gas fee.

Base App started life focused on Base and Ethereum but has grown into a multi-chain smart wallet. The same passkey login, biometric signing and cross-app portability work across eight networks, with a roadmap to add more over time.

• Base — the home network; lowest fees, deepest liquidity, richest app ecosystem.
• Ethereum — the root of trust; for blue-chip assets and L1 settlement.
• Optimism — OP Stack L2 with broad DeFi and NFT support.
• Arbitrum — major L2 for gaming, DeFi and institutional apps.
• Polygon — high-throughput sidechain, popular for payments and NFTs.
• Avalanche — sub-second finality C-chain.
• BNB Chain — the Binance ecosystem L1.
• Zora — the creator-economy network for NFTs and onchain media.

Switching networks in the app is instant, and balances across every chain are aggregated in a unified portfolio view. Cross-chain bridges are surfaced natively, so moving value from Ethereum L1 down to Base — or between L2s — is a guided, one-tap flow rather than a manual bridge-hunt.