tl;dr
Coinbase has rebranded Coinbase Wallet as the Base App, unifying trading, payments, and social features in one platform. The app enables multi-coin trading with live social feeds, zero-fee instant USDC transfers via NFC tap-to-pay, and offers up to 4.1% APY on USDC holdings. Users gain automatic acc...
Coinbase has rebranded its Coinbase Wallet as the Base App, creating a unified platform that combines trading, payments, and social interactions within a single interface. This strategic shift positions the Base App as the central consumer gateway for the larger Base ecosystem, streamlining user activity by enabling coin swaps, messaging, and social posting all in one place.
The Base App introduces multi-coin trading with live social features, allowing users to trade, buy, and swap millions of coins while watching others’ trades in real time. It offers a transparent social feed showcasing trending swaps and market behaviors, facilitating simpler coin management and enhanced community interaction.
Enhancing its retail payment capabilities, Coinbase enables zero-fee USDC transfers using NFC tap-to-pay technology integrated into the Base App. This allows users to send or receive funds instantly without blockchain delays, improving transaction speed and convenience.
Users can earn up to 4.1% APY on USDC held in the Base App through a new yield feature designed to increase engagement and provide stablecoin utility. Once enabled, this feature rewards users passively simply for holding USDC within the platform.
Signing up for the Base App grants automatic access to Base Account and Base Pay. Base Account serves as a universal onchain identity management system supporting portable, customizable profiles across multiple apps. Base Pay facilitates one-tap USDC checkouts, reducing friction for merchants and consumers alike. Shopify merchants can enable Base Pay to benefit from near-instant payments, while Coinbase plans to launch 1% USDC cash back rewards for U.S. users later this year.
The Base App’s social and messaging functions are powered through partnerships with Farcaster, Zora, and XMTP. Farcaster enables a social feed where posts become tokens that users can monetize via Zora, supporting content ownership and community tipping. Active top creators receive weekly rewards, boosting engagement. XMTP drives encrypted messaging with built-in AI agents like Bankr and Mamo, offering financial tools within conversations while ensuring user privacy.
As part of Coinbase’s three-layered Base platform — which includes Base Chain and Base Build — the Base App acts as a public-facing tool. It encourages developers to integrate the “Sign in with Base” functionality, aiming to unify decentralized services under a single identity system that enhances accessibility while maintaining security and performance.