This is a practical record of what WakeUp Labs has been shipping across the Coinbase ecosystem. The X posts are embedded where they matter in the story, so the original text, media, and videos render natively inside the article.
Over the past year, our work has moved across several layers: wallet infrastructure, DeFi UX, developer tooling, onchain automation, Mini Apps on Base, escrow flows, and stablecoin payment experiments.
Expanding Access to DeFi through Coinbase Wallet
One of the biggest challenges in DeFi is not building protocols. It is making them usable.
Through our collaboration on Coinbase Wallet, we have been involved in improving how users interact with decentralized finance, with a strong focus on reducing friction across the full journey.
DEX interactionsCleaner flows for swaps and decentralized exchange interactions.
Fiat railsIntegration patterns around onramps, offramps, and traditional finance rails.
Onchain UXSimpler product surfaces for operations that are complex under the hood.
Secure architectureFrontend and backend decisions designed around production constraints.
Going Deeper with Coinbase Developer Platform
Beyond client work, we also like to test new tools ourselves in real scenarios. That is what led us to Coinbase Developer Platform.
Rather than treating CDP as a set of isolated APIs, we approached it as a toolkit to build end-to-end product experiences: swaps, smart wallets, payment flows, and real user journeys.
WakeUp Labs on X, August 12, 2025
Coinbase Wallet -> DeFi UX
Coinbase Developer Platform -> product experiments
Base -> Mini Apps and embedded financial flows
Open source -> repeatable developer examples
CoinbaseDev validation -> public ecosystem signalOpen-Source CDP Artifacts
Part of the work was making the experiments inspectable. We published public TypeScript repositories that show different ways to use Coinbase tooling in realistic product flows.
cdp-escrowA challenge-based escrow app showcasing embedded wallets, gas sponsorship, onramps, and smart contract interactions on Base Sepolia.
- TypeScript
- Embedded wallets
- Gas sponsorship
- Onramp
- Escrow
cdp-collectorA fundraising and donation platform on Base with automatic USDC distribution, invitation-based pools, onramp, Trade API, Token Balances API, SQL API, and subgraph indexing.
- TypeScript
- Fundraising
- USDC settlement
- Trade API
- SQL API
coinbase-arbitrage-botA TypeScript arbitrage bot exploring automated price checks, CDP swap execution, mock providers for safe testing, x402 payment integration, logging, and modular provider architecture.
- TypeScript
- CDP swaps
- Mock DEX
- x402 payments
- Automation
From Tooling to Demo Apps
As we kept exploring CDP, the work evolved from single experiments into more complete demo applications.
| Experiment | What it tested | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Bounty and smart escrow | Wallet creation, signing, escrow logic, and onchain settlement | Shows how programmable trust can become a product flow |
| Fundraising and donations | Payment flows, wallet onboarding, and contribution mechanics | Connects crypto payments with familiar user journeys |
| Stablecoin checkout | Checkout UX, payment links, web components, and settlement paths | Turns stablecoin payments into an application-level experience |
Escrow as a Real Product Pattern
The CDP escrow demo made the idea more concrete: programmable trust, smart wallets, signing flows, and settlement logic packaged into something closer to a real user-facing product.
WakeUp Labs on X, October 17, 2025
Mini Apps on Base
More recently, we have also explored how these capabilities translate into lighter and more composable user experiences. At Aleph's 10 Years of Ethereum event, our co-founder Milton Berman presented how to build Mini Apps on Base using Coinbase's ecosystem.
WakeUp Labs on X, July 31, 2025
Working Through Real Product Constraints
What made this work valuable was not just shipping demos. It was working through the real constraints that appear when you try to make these flows usable.
What we tested across the stack
Smart wallets and embedded wallet flows
Server wallets and signing logic
Swap execution and quote flows
Gas sponsorship
Onramp and payment link integrations
Web component-based checkout experiences
Data indexing and event tracking through APIs
The practical differences between sandbox, testnet, and mainnet
That process also involved close feedback loops with Coinbase's team: validating ideas, sharing demos, surfacing blockers, and refining implementations around real product limitations and opportunities.
CoinbaseDev Validation
The strongest signal is not only that we built demos. It is that Coinbase Developer Platform publicly highlighted the work, validating the direction and the usefulness of testing these tools under real product constraints.
CoinbaseDev on X, October 20, 2025
Final Thought
The direction is clear: developer tools matter most when they become reliable product surfaces. That is where wallet infrastructure, automation, stablecoin payments, and onchain UX start to move finance forward.
If you are exploring how to bring real-world assets onchain, automate financial operations, or build on top of Coinbase's ecosystem, let's talk.