Coinbase Cloud
Coinbase Cloud was the blockchain infrastructure business of the US crypto company Coinbase, built on Bison Trails, which Coinbase bought in 2021. Coinbase Cloud ran nodes and validators for exchanges, custodians and funds and gave developers APIs to read blockchain data, stake assets and send transactions. Since April 2024 the business carries the name Coinbase Developer Platform, or CDP.
A Chainlink node operator runs the software that fetches data such as asset prices outside a blockchain and delivers signed reports to smart contracts. Coinbase Cloud joined the Chainlink network in this role in May 2023, after it had already built NFT price feeds with Chainlink Labs. Customers who buy and sell crypto deal with the Coinbase exchange, a separate business of the same group.
From Bison Trails to Coinbase Developer Platform
Bison Trails was a platform-as-a-service company that ran blockchain infrastructure on many networks for custodians, exchanges and funds. Coinbase signed the purchase agreement on 19 January 2021 and completed the acquisition on 8 February 2021. Two months later, in April 2021, Coinbase launched Coinbase Cloud on the foundation of Bison Trails, as a product line for sending and storing crypto, accepting crypto payments and running infrastructure for staking and delegation.
In September 2022 Coinbase Cloud opened its Node product to developers of decentralized applications with a free tier. On 18 April 2024 the developer documentation recorded the change of name: Coinbase Cloud is now Coinbase Developer Platform. The old name still appears in partner lists and announcements from the years before, including the Chainlink operator list.
Running a Chainlink oracle node
On 18 May 2023 Chainlink announced that Coinbase Cloud had joined its network as a node operator to bring data to blockchain applications. Chainlink pointed to the multi-region infrastructure of Coinbase Cloud and to its experience with high-performance validators on proof-of-stake networks. The Chainlink ecosystem overview lists Coinbase Cloud among the leading node operators, together with Blockdaemon and Vodafone.
A node operator in a Chainlink decentralized oracle network fetches a value such as an asset price from several sources off chain, signs its report and sends it on chain. The network then combines the reports of all operators into one value, so a smart contract does not depend on a single company. The most important Chainlink node operators range from early specialists such as LinkPool to staking firms and infrastructure providers such as Coinbase Cloud.
NFT floor price feeds with Chainlink Labs
Before it ran its own node, Coinbase Cloud worked with Chainlink Labs on prices for non-fungible tokens. The Chainlink NFT Floor Price Feeds went live on Ethereum mainnet in December 2022 with the pricing method of Coinbase Cloud. That method scans sales across several NFT marketplaces, removes outliers and wash trades and calculates one floor price per collection. The JPEGz index token of Cryptex Finance was one of the first users, and Chainlink has since marked these feeds as unavailable.
Staking API and Coinbase validators
Infrastructure for staking and delegation was part of Coinbase Cloud from the start, and it continues under the CDP name. The CDP Staking API connects an application to the validators that Coinbase runs and supports more than 15 networks. For Ethereum, the option called dedicated ETH staking reserves each validator for one customer in steps of 32 ETH, so client funds are not mixed with those of other Coinbase staking customers.
For a bank or a broker, crypto staking through such a provider raises two separate questions. The first is who holds the keys of the staked coins, and the second is who carries the loss when a validator goes offline or is slashed.
Wallets, APIs and x402 payments
Coinbase Developer Platform groups its products today under payments, wallets, stablecoins, trading and onchain tools, all reachable with one API key. Developers can add non-custodial or custodial wallets to an app, give AI agents wallets of their own, issue a custom stablecoin on Base and execute swaps through a Trade API.
The payment standard x402 turns an API or a digital service into a paid resource: the buyer sees the price, pays and gets access within the same request. The CDP facilitator verifies and settles these payments, and Coinbase reports more than 100 million x402 payments on Base and Solana.
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What happened to Coinbase Cloud?
Coinbase Cloud became Coinbase Developer Platform, and the developer documentation recorded the new name on 18 April 2024. Staking and wallet services continued under the CDP name, and new products such as x402 payments came later.
Did Bison Trails become Coinbase Cloud?
Yes, Coinbase bought Bison Trails in February 2021 and launched Coinbase Cloud on its foundation in April 2021. Bison Trails had run blockchain infrastructure for custodians, exchanges and funds before the acquisition.
Does Coinbase use Chainlink CCIP?
Yes, in December 2025 Coinbase selected Chainlink CCIP as the exclusive bridge for its wrapped assets, such as cbBTC and cbETH. This decision concerns the tokens of the Coinbase group and is separate from the oracle node that Coinbase Cloud added to the Chainlink network in 2023.
Chainlink operators and Coinbase
Coinbase Cloud and Finance Loop
Finance Loop covers oracle networks, staking and node infrastructure in the track Investment & Digital Assets. Coinbase Cloud was a crypto exchange group renting its validators and its Chainlink node to other firms, and banks check this kind of infrastructure before they offer digital assets to clients.
Finance Loop is a professional network and has the goal of driving the adoption of emerging technologies in finance, such as AI, tokenization, stablecoins, and DeFi. Finance Loop helps its members build skills and personal networks in these fields: Investment & Digital Assets, Payments & Digital Money, Digital Infrastructure & Sovereignty, and Risk & Compliance.