Coinbase's Pulse Mode Brings Perp Trading to Bitcoin and Ethereum Wallet Users

Pulse Mode Goes Live

Coinbase has switched on a new in-app trading experience called “Pulse Mode,” activating it inside the newly renamed Coinbase Wallet just hours after the product formally dropped the Base App name. Chief executive Brian Armstrong showcased the feature in a post on X on September 12, 2026, urging users to download the app and try the refreshed trading flow for themselves. The company's own rollout materials describe Pulse Mode as a deliberately stripped-down way to trade smart contract-settled perpetual futures — leveraged derivatives contracts with no expiry date — directly from a mobile device, so traders can open and manage positions immediately rather than navigating a cluttered multi-step interface. A more dynamic, visually engaging layout sits on top, aimed at active traders who monitor markets throughout the session. Crucially, the mode lives entirely within the wallet application: users can reach supported perpetual markets without ever leaving the self-custody environment, and Coinbase says no separate exchange account flow is required. Perp access was wired up in August 2026 through an integration with Hyperliquid, the on-chain derivatives venue, and in eligible regions the wallet also exposes markets referencing tokenized equities and commodities. Coverage of those instruments is subject to regional restrictions the company has not fully itemized. On the custody question, Coinbase Global (COIN) has been explicit: despite the rename and the trading push, the application remains a self-custodial wallet, meaning users retain control of their own keys at all times.

a post on Xhttps://x.com/brian_armstrong/status/2098607228274212924?s=46

A 14-Month Detour Ends

The rename closes a 14-month detour. In July 2025, Coinbase folded its wallet into the “Base App,” betting that social feeds, creator tools, payments and trading could be fused into a single everything-application spanning the consumer crypto experience from payments to the metaverse. That wager did not deliver quickly enough: in July 2026, Jesse Pollak, the creator of Base, acknowledged that the social and creator features had fallen short of expectations and handed day-to-day app operations to Jordan Fish, as he confirmed in an announcement on X. Pollak subsequently signaled the pivot, saying the app would trade across a broad set of networks and would no longer be Base-centric. The refreshed Coinbase Wallet now supports more than 10 networks — Base, Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL) among them — with Monad and Robinhood Chain added in this round and further integrations promised. Base nonetheless keeps a privileged slot: Base-related assets and communities still surface naturally in the app's trending sections, an arrangement the official Coinbase Wallet account has described as trend-driven rather than hardcoded. The strategic reading is straightforward. The everything-app experiment chased engagement metrics that never converted into volume, while trading is where the revenue actually sits. By restoring a name users already associate with self-custody and reorganizing the product around perp execution, Coinbase is reallocating the same surface area toward the activity that monetizes, without abandoning the multichain reach it built along the way. Readers tracking the market in real time can follow live spot and futures prices on Bybit.

an announcement on Xhttps://x.com/jessepollak/status/2077427261586997745

The Everything-Exchange Bet

Both moves fit a single arc COINOTAG has tracked since January 2026, when Coinbase unveiled its “everything exchange” strategy covering crypto alongside stocks, commodities and prediction markets. The wallet revamp extends that thesis on-chain: self-custody is preserved while the range of tradable markets expands, and a parallel payments push — stablecoin infrastructure for regional financial institutions — rounds out a two-front expansion across trading and settlement. Our reading of the official announcements: with rivals across ecosystems, from Telegram's Toncoin-based wallets to standalone perp apps, chasing the same on-chain flow, Coinbase is betting that brand recognition plus one-tap execution will decide the mobile trading race.