Agentic trading platforms compared

An agentic trading platform lets an AI agent place real orders for you. In 2026 most large brokers and exchanges shipped one. This page compares them on four questions: who holds the money and the keys, what the agent can trade, when a human must approve, and how you test before real money moves. For the concept itself, read what is agentic trading. For rule-based bot products such as 3Commas and Pionex, see best AI crypto trading bots.

Every fact about another company comes from its own site or docs, read in October 2026.

The platforms split into two designs. In the first, you connect a general assistant such as Claude, ChatGPT or Grok to an account over MCP, the Model Context Protocol, and the assistant decides each trade in a chat. Robinhood, Gemini, Coinbase, Kraken and Alpaca work this way. In the second, the agent is a program with fixed rules that runs on a schedule, and a language model helps write it. Circuit works this way, and also accepts a connected assistant that can suggest trades for you to approve.

Robinhood lets you connect a third-party agent to a dedicated account. Per its onboarding article, supported clients include Claude Code, Claude Desktop, ChatGPT, Codex, Cursor and Grok, all pointed at one MCP URL: https://agent.robinhood.com/mcp/trading.

The agent gets read access to all your Robinhood accounts, positions, balances and order history, and can only place trades in the agentic account. That account is a self-directed individual investing account and counts toward Robinhood's limit of 10. Its support article lists equities, options and crypto tools.

The product page says approvals are turned on by default so you review each trade. The support article adds that an agent you have told to act without asking "can place trades without your confirmation". Robinhood's disclosures say it "does not control, supervise, monitor, recommend, or audit these AI agents", that agents "can make errors, misinterpret instructions, act on incomplete or outdated information", and that you "assume all risk for orders placed by your AI agent".

Robinhood fits US stock and options investors who already use Claude or ChatGPT. It has no backtesting and no onchain venues. See our Robinhood agentic trading alternative page.

Gemini announced Agentic Trading on April 27, 2026 and calls it the first agentic trading tool on a regulated US-based exchange. Per its launch post, Gemini integrated its full API with MCP, so any MCP-compatible assistant, with Claude and ChatGPT named, can reach exchange features. Setup starts at developer.gemini.com under the Agentic menu.

Launch Trading Skills were Get Market Data, Find the Spread and Retrieve Candles, with candles described as useful for backtesting. The post does not describe approval settings, position limits or a kill switch, so check the developer docs before you give an agent trade access. See our Gemini agentic trading alternative page.

Coinbase has two products that matter here.

Coinbase for Agents connects an assistant to your Coinbase account for crypto, US derivatives and US equities, per its docs. The remote MCP at agents.coinbase.com/mcp uses OAuth, and supported clients include ChatGPT, Grok, Perplexity Computer, Claude, Claude Code and Codex CLI. A CLI covers other clients. On the approval screen you pick which portfolios the agent may use, and Coinbase recommends a separate portfolio funded with only what you are willing to risk. Isolated agent portfolios are spot crypto only. US futures work only in your default portfolio.

Approvals depend on the assistant. Coinbase's docs say "Claude previews and requests confirmation in the chat to create the order, whereas ChatGPT creates the order in one turn". They also warn that lower-tier models may pick the wrong product, such as ETH-USD for ETH-USDC. An orders preview tool estimates fill, fees and slippage before you create an order.

AgentKit is Coinbase's open-source developer toolkit, Apache-2.0, for giving an agent its own onchain wallet through providers such as CDP, Privy or viem. Its README is blunt: "AgentKit does not gate transfers behind human approval, enforce spend caps, or allowlist destinations." The developer owns every guardrail.

Kraken ships an MIT-licensed command line tool, kraken-cli, with a built-in MCP server. Per Kraken's docs it exposes all 151 CLI commands as tools and runs locally over stdio, so it is never exposed as a network service.

By default it enables only market data, read-only account access and paper trading. Live trading needs a trading service added explicitly. Tools marked dangerous require the agent to pass an acknowledgement on each call unless you start the server with --allow-dangerous. API keys live in environment variables or the CLI's config file, and Kraken recommends minimum-permission keys with position limits and pair allowlists.

Circuit also trades Kraken spot. A Circuit Kraken bot uses a Kraken credential you attach when you start it, and the bot's code never sees the secret. See our Kraken trading bot page.

Alpaca's official MCP server, MIT-licensed, connects Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code and other clients to Alpaca's Trading API for stocks, ETFs, options and crypto. You set your API key and secret in the MCP client's config. Paper trading is the default, and you set ALPACA_PAPER_TRADE to false to trade live. Alpaca warns that the server "can place real trades" and that its HTTP transport has no built-in authentication.

Circuit takes the second design. A bot is TypeScript code with fixed rules. You describe a strategy in Terminal and the Builder writes the code, or you write it with the CLI and SDK. Circuit runs it on a schedule or continuously, and each run requests typed actions such as a Hyperliquid order or a Polymarket buy.

Bots run on a wallet you create in Circuit or import by private key. Circuit keeps the signing key in a hardware enclave, bots never see it, and Circuit signs only under a permit you sign with your passkey. A bot runs under the permit signed when it starts, so its individual trades do not each wait for you. You can pause or stop it at any time and export the key whenever you want.

Assistants are a separate path. Per Circuit's assistant docs, a connected assistant such as Claude Code or Grok reads your account, builds bots through the Builder and submits suggestions. It never approves, trades or moves funds. Each suggestion waits in Terminal for you to approve with your passkey. See trade with Claude.

Circuit reaches markets the brokers above do not: Hyperliquid perps, spot and HIP-3 dexes, Polymarket, Lighter and Papertrade, plus Kraken spot and swaps across 18 networks. It does not offer US-listed stocks and options the way Robinhood, Coinbase and Alpaca do. It can buy tokenized stocks through swaps.

This is the biggest difference between platforms, so be precise about it.

• Broker and exchange accounts (Robinhood, Gemini, Coinbase for Agents, Kraken, Alpaca): the company holds your money. The agent gets an OAuth grant or an API key that can trade within the scope you set. Revoking the grant or key cuts the agent off.
• Developer wallets (AgentKit): the wallet provider you choose holds the key, and your code decides what the agent may sign. AgentKit adds no limits of its own.
• Circuit: Circuit holds the wallet's signing key in a hardware enclave. It is not self-custody. Circuit signs only under a permit you signed with your passkey, the bot's code never sees the key, and you can export the key and leave at any time. Read the safety page for the full model.

A chat assistant that decides each trade can be asked to confirm every order. Robinhood turns approvals on by default, and Claude on Coinbase previews first. The cost is that the trade waits for you, and the model's reasoning can differ from run to run. Robinhood's own disclosure lists misread instructions and stale information as risks.

A bot with fixed rules does the same thing for the same inputs. That makes it testable before money moves. Circuit replays a bot on recorded Hyperliquid or Lighter perp markets with circuit backtest, then paper trades it on live markets for every venue, including Polymarket order books. Kraken's CLI and Alpaca's server also offer paper trading. Robinhood and Gemini describe no paper trading.

Pick the design by the job. For a one-off rebalance of a stock portfolio you watch, a chat assistant on your broker is simple. For a strategy that runs every minute while you sleep, use rules you can read and test.

• Who holds the signing keys, and can the bot or model ever see them?
• What does a running bot need your approval for, and can approvals be switched off?
• Can you read the exact code or rules the bot runs?
• Can you test it on recorded markets and on live markets with simulated funds before real money moves?
• Which markets can it reach: stocks at one broker, one exchange, or onchain venues across networks?
• Can you stop it instantly, and what happens to open positions when you do?
• What does it cost, including the venue's fees?

Circuit charges no fees today and adds no builder fee to Hyperliquid or Polymarket orders. You pay the venue's trading fees, network gas and any bridge or routing fees, and each prepared action's review shows the costs it reports before you confirm. Today's terms make no commitment about future fees.

What is Robinhood agentic trading?

A Robinhood feature that connects a third-party AI agent such as Claude or ChatGPT to a dedicated Robinhood account over MCP. The agent can read all your accounts and trade only in the agentic account. Approvals are on by default.

Can Claude trade crypto for me?

Yes, through a platform that exposes trading over MCP, such as Coinbase for Agents, Gemini or Kraken's CLI. On Circuit, Claude can build bots and suggest trades, and you approve each suggestion with your passkey. See trade with Claude.

Is agentic trading safe?

It carries the risks of trading plus agent errors. Limit the agent to a separate account or portfolio funded with what you can lose, keep approvals on where the platform offers them, and test on paper first. Robinhood's disclosure warns you can lose your entire investment.

Which AI agents can trade on Coinbase?

Per Coinbase's docs, the remote MCP supports ChatGPT, Grok, Grok Bot, Muse, Perplexity Computer, Claude, Claude Code and Codex CLI. Other clients use the Coinbase CLI with a CDP API key.

Do I need an MCP server for agentic trading?

Only for the chat-assistant design. Robinhood, Gemini, Coinbase, Kraken and Alpaca all use MCP. Circuit bots are programs that run on Circuit and need no MCP connection, though Circuit's docs publish an MCP server for coding assistants that write bots.

Can an AI agent trade Hyperliquid or Polymarket?

Not through the brokers above. Circuit bots trade Hyperliquid perps and spot, Polymarket, Lighter and Papertrade. See Hyperliquid trading bots and Polymarket trading bots.