Two digital workers named after real people are now appearing in the inboxes and chat channels of Coinbase employees – and the company’s CEO thinks this is just the beginning.
Agents with personality
Coinbase has rolled out a pair of AI agents built to help staff with daily work tasks, accessible directly via Slack and email.
One is called Fred, named after company co-founder Fred Ehrsam. Fred operates as a ‘strategic executive agent’, helping employees think about priorities and get feedback on decisions.
The other is Balaji – a nod to former Coinbase Chief Technology Officer Balaji Srinivasan – whose role is to push back ideas and help employees think differently.
Both agents are live and are being tested across the organization.
CEO Brian Armstrong announced the move on X this weekend, describing the deployments as an early step in a much larger shift.
According to Armstrong, the goal is to ultimately make it easy for any employee to set up their own agent – or build one for their team.
Coinbase is testing AI agents that show up to work in the form of a message/email, just like any human teammate. To start, we’re shipping two modeled after legendary former Coinbase employees, @FEhrsam and @balajis. (Who brutally framed who in this matchup?)
Soon it will be easy… pic.twitter.com/1bxfh8Dg9q
— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) April 18, 2026
More agents than employees
Armstrong went further than most executives typically do when it comes to AI in the workplace.
Reports indicate that he believes Coinbase could one day have more AI agents on its roster than human employees.
This prediction comes at a time when tech companies across the industry have been cutting staff while leaning harder on AI tools to fill the gaps.
Coinbase has been moving in this direction for a while. Based on previous reports, Armstrong set a goal for AI to write more than 50% of the company’s code.
In addition, the company announced an effort to transform its workforce of more than 4,000 people into what it called “AI Natives.”
The two new agents are so far the most visible sign of that internal push happening in practice.
Crypto’s Bet on AI Trades
The workplace rollout ties into a larger story unfolding in the crypto industry.
Armstrong has publicly predicted that AI agents will conduct online transactions more often than humans in the near future.
Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire made a similar call earlier this year, saying billions of AI agents could move money through the chain within three to five years.
Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao has described crypto as the natural currency for AI-driven transactions – the kind that take place without a credit card or a human involved.
Coinbase has already built infrastructure to support that vision. The company last year launched a protocol called x402, designed to handle payments from AI agents across both crypto and traditional financial rails.
Now that Fred and Balaji are living in the company’s own tools, Coinbase is testing the concept where it can see it best: from the inside.
Featured image from Pexels, chart from TradingView