Coinbase Releases Web3 Wallet for Prime Customers

Coinbase has introduced its Web3 wallet for its Prime customers. 

The wallet, announced Tuesday (Sept. 12), lets clients — among other things — store any token on supported networks, gain instant access to funds, buy, sell and mint NFT collections, and directly interact with decentralized applications (DApps) and smart contracts. 

“We have seen tremendous demand from institutions to get direct and secure access to Web3 and DeFi,” the company wrote on its blog. “Institutional clients have been looking for reliable access but have struggled to find it in the current environment. Many of our own institutional clients have had to use a patchwork of fragmented solutions to access Web3 up until now.”

The launch comes as a number of companies are debuting products designed to help promote Web3 adoption. For example, Web3 infrastructure company MoonPay recently launched its investment arm, which aims to support and work with startups in the Web3 and FinTech spaces. 

MoonPay Ventures will provide capital and access to resources, mentorship and industry expertise to early-stage companies, with the hope of fueling industry-wide value and encouraging the adoption of Web3 technology, the company said last month. 

Additionally, blockchain company Aptos Labs said last month that it has joined forces with Microsoft to promote Web3 adoption, using Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI Service to help make Web3 more mainstream.

“Onboarding new users to Web3 can be time consuming and complex, which may deter people from exploring the ecosystem,” Aptos said in the announcement. “There’s a common perception gap between the utility of blockchain and user skepticism around how simple it is to use.”

The debut follows March’s rollout of Coinbase’s Wallet-as-a-Service offering, designed to make it easier for companies to onboard their users to Web3.

The offering lets companies construct fully customizable on-chain wallets for their customers that will hold digital assets, facilitate transactions and serve as the user’s digital identity.

“Traditionally, wallets have made it difficult for users to access and benefit from Web3’s potential because of their complex mnemonic seeds and counterintuitive [user interfaces (UIs)],” Coinbase said on its blog. “In a world where wallets are simple, companies can finally build Web3 experiences accessible to everyone regardless of technical knowledge.”