Grok Dominates Coinbase’s AI Trading with a 60% Share: Which Coins Are Being Purchased?
Grok now controls the majority of AI agent trading on Coinbase, but the platform stays silent on which coins these bots actually buy, leaving investors to wonder whether any token beyond USDC stands to benefit.
Grok, the AI chatbot created by Elon Musk’s xAI, has become the frontrunner in automated trading on Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN | COIN Price Prediction). On September 25, 2026, Coinbase’s CEO Brian Armstrong announced that “Grok is the leading client for agentic traders on Coinbase currently.” Data shows that from September 14 to September 21, Grok accounted for about 60% of AI agent trading activity on the platform.
Traditionally, exchange executives refer to their clients as either retail investors or institutional traders. However, Armstrong broke from that norm by naming a chatbot, highlighting the significant role that software plays in executing orders on the largest U.S. crypto exchange. This raises a pressing question: what coins are these AI agents actually buying?
Grok Drove About 60% of AI Agent Trading on Coinbase
An “agentic trader” is essentially a program that receives a wallet and specific instructions to place trades automatically, without human approval for each transaction. Coinbase introduced this capability on June 11, 2026, when it launched “Coinbase for Agents.” This service allows AI tools to trade cryptocurrencies and derivatives within predefined spending limits set by their owners.
In the week of September 22, Coinbase even expanded this service to include U.S. stocks and ETFs.
According to the developer data labeled “Where agentic traders come from,” Grok holds a commanding lead with about a 60% share, well ahead of its competition. Custom command-line tools developed by users take second place with around a 22% share, followed by Claude at 13%, Perplexity at 3.5%, and ChatGPT at 1.5%. This distribution shows that Coinbase is already organizing agent trading activity by the AI programs that power them.
Cryptocurrency trading is uniquely suited for these automated agents, more so than the stock market. Unlike traditional markets, blockchains operate 24/7 with no closing times, allowing programs to confirm payments almost instantly. Additionally, agents can create their own self-custody wallets without the identity checks typically required for brokerage accounts.
Coinbase Has Not Said Which Coins Its AI Agents Buy
While Armstrong’s announcement and the developer data show which AI products are driving trading activity, they don’t specify which coins are being traded. As of now, Coinbase has not provided any information on how agent trading activity breaks down by specific cryptocurrencies. Consequently, any speculation about “AI agent coins” is guesswork rather than based on solid exchange data.
Everyone involved in this discussion has a vested interest. Armstrong leads an exchange that profits from trading fees, while Jordi Visser and Tillman Holloway, who shared their views on The Pomp Podcast, a crypto-focused show, advocate for broader adoption of cryptocurrencies. Their points of view offer insight but not definitive data on which assets the agents are actually trading.
However, Coinbase likely has the capability to shed light on this question. Since they categorize agent traders by AI program, they should also be able to categorize orders by coin if they choose to release that information.
AI Agents Pay for Online Services in USDC
The payment aspect of agent activity offers more clarity. Coinbase has implemented a payment standard called x402, enabling AI agents to pay websites and online services directly. Armstrong mentioned in June that this system had already processed over 160 million transactions, primarily settling in USDC, the U.S. dollar stablecoin issued by Circle (NYSE: CRCL). Coinbase’s Base network handles more than 90% of this transaction volume.
In April, Coinbase transferred control of the x402 standard to an independent foundation. By July, Ripple joined as a key member alongside major players like Visa and Mastercard. Ripple has connected XRP to Stripe’s agent payment system, but the reported activity related to x402 predominantly runs on USDC.
Additionally, the Ethereum Foundation is launching similar payment tools using USDC. On October 1, they introduced zkAPI on the Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) mainnet, allowing users to prepay USDC into a vault and pay for AI models using zero-knowledge proofs—an advanced form of cryptography that confirms a payment’s validity without revealing which deposit funded it.
Visser emphasizes the need for speed in transaction settlements. He pointed out that longer settlement times can create opportunities for “agent swarms”—groups of coordinated bots that could potentially capitalize on delays. The Base network confirms transfers in about two seconds, closely aligning with Visser’s target of instant processing.
What Coins Are AI Agents Buying on Coinbase?
Despite Grok’s strong presence in AI trading, the specific cryptocurrencies it buys remain a mystery, as Coinbase has not disclosed this information. While payments are primarily made in USDC, there’s still no concrete evidence of which tokens AI agents favor. Thus, any claim that a coin is a preferred choice among agents relies more on speculation than on confirmed exchange data.
Until Coinbase publishes that breakdown, can AI agent trading lift any coin beyond USDC?
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Sam Daodu is a crypto analyst and the editor of 24/7 Wall St.'s Crypto Desk, where he covers Bitcoin, XRP, Ethereum, Solana and the altcoins investors search for most. His work focuses on price levels, spot ETF flows, on-chain data and the regulatory decisions that move crypto markets, written so a first-time buyer and a seasoned trader can both use it.
Sam has written about crypto professionally since 2019 and has published more than 2,000 articles. Before joining 24/7 Wall St., he wrote for crypto media outlets and Web3 companies and ghostwrote for crypto founders and token launches. His analysis is syndicated on Yahoo Finance, MSN and AOL and has been cited by other crypto news sites. He also founded MacLabs Marketing, a content and personal branding agency for crypto founders and executives.
When he isn't reading charts, Sam is usually at the gym or watching One Piece, a series he maintains has better tokenomics than most altcoins.
