MetaMask Hands the Keys to Robots — But Made Them Sign a Permission Slip 🤖

MetaMask launched Agent Wallet on Thursday, a self-custodial wallet that lets artificial intelligence agents execute on-chain transactions inside user-defined limits, expanding the Consensys-backed company's push into AI-powered crypto trading. The product targets traders and developers using AI agents to monitor markets, identify opportunities and execute transactions autonomously, while keeping spending authority with the human owner rather than the machine.

Users can set spending caps, approve specific protocols, choose risk settings and pick between "Guard Mode" and "Beast Mode," which offer different levels of automation. The wallet supports Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, OpenClaw, Hermes and OpenCode, and operates across Hyperliquid and Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible networks. MetaMask also built in gas abstraction, allowing agents to transfer and swap assets without holding a chain's native token for fees. "Never worry about paying for gas," the company wrote. "Agents can transfer and swap without holding a chain's native token for gas; MetaMask settles the network fee in the token being moved."

The public release follows MetaMask's June rollout to about 200 early access users and arrives as crypto firms race to build infrastructure for AI agents that can manage portfolios, execute trades and interact with decentralized applications. Coinbase introduced Agentic Wallets in February, MoonPay expanded its AI agent strategy in March and pushed its MoonAgents platform to Telegram in July.

MetaMask said Agent Wallet reduces security risk by enforcing wallet-level permissions instead of trusting AI agents to act safely. Supported transactions pass through transaction simulation, threat scanning and smart-transactions MEV protection, and MetaMask offers Transaction Protection coverage of up to $10,000 per month for eligible transactions that pass its security checks but still result in losses. "This security-first model is why Agent Wallet is built around rules, not blind delegation," MetaMask said. "The agent can act, but it acts inside the user's boundaries."