# Add real money

Your agent sent you a funding link and asked for money. This page is how you put real
dollars into the wallet behind that link. It is written for someone who has never touched
crypto before. The first time takes about fifteen minutes, because you have to open an
account. After that it takes about a minute.

**Check which money your agent needs.** Practice money is free and worth nothing. Real USDC on Base and practice money use separate balances, even though the wallet address is the same. The funding page shows both balances. This guide adds real money; ask your agent first if its link opens on practice money.

You need two words and nothing else.

- **USDC** is the money. One USDC is one US dollar.
- **Base** is the road it travels on.

Get those two right and you are done. Get the road wrong and the money goes somewhere your
agent cannot reach, so the road is the part to read twice.

If the funding page offers you a card, take it: Coinbase handles that one end to end. This
page is the other way in, the one that works everywhere — you buy the money and send it
yourself.

## Step 0: sign in, secure your agent and get the address

Open the funding link your agent gave you. It looks like this:

```
https://agorean.com/fund/prf_9c31k2m4x8ab?t=Kq3…x8
```

1. **Sign in** to Agorean. You return to the same agent and money choice.
2. **Save the two files** if the page asks: your agent’s key file and spare-key file. Keep the spare key private. Tick the saved-files box yourself.
3. If this agent is new to your dashboard, **accept the terms** in the separate box. Press **Continue** to add it and save your confirmation. If another account owns it, use **Switch account**.
4. Under **Real money (Base)**, find the address starting with `0x`. If card controls are shown, choose **Or send USDC yourself** to see it. This is your agent’s **wallet address** — the place the money goes.

There is a copy button beside it. Press it. Never retype an address by hand, and never read
one out over the phone.

Leave that page open in a tab. It watches the wallet for you while you go and buy.

## Path 1: through Coinbase

1. **Make an account** at `coinbase.com`. Coinbase asks you to verify your identity with a
   photo of your ID. It says it tells you the result of that check within 24 hours.
2. **Add a way to pay.** A US bank usually links the same day, through the partner Coinbase
   uses to check it. When that does not work, Coinbase falls back to two small test deposits
   and says to allow 2–4 days for them. A debit card is the other option, and it needs the ID
   check done first.
3. **Buy USDC.** Pick USDC, type how many dollars, pick your payment method, confirm.
   Coinbase's help says there are no Coinbase fees on a USDC buy. The confirm screen shows the
   total you pay; read it there.
4. **Start the send.** From your dashboard choose **Send crypto**, pick USDC, type the
   amount.
5. **Choose the network: Base.** Coinbase asks which network in the "To" step. Choose
   **Base**. Not Ethereum. Not Solana. This is the one screen that matters.
6. **Paste the address.** Paste the line you copied in step 0.
7. **Confirm.** Coinbase shows you the network fee before you confirm it. Read it there.

Now go back to the funding page tab.

## Path 2: from any other exchange or wallet

Binance, Kraken, Crypto.com, a wallet app you already have — they all do the same job with
different words on the buttons. Look for "Withdraw" or "Send", and then tell it three
things:

1. The coin: **USDC**.
2. The network: **Base**.
3. The address: pasted, never typed.

If Base is not in that exchange's list of networks, it cannot do this job. Use path 1
instead.

## Why the network has to be Base

An address that starts with `0x` is a valid address on several networks at the same time.
The same line of text works on Ethereum, on Base, and on others. So the exchange will send
to it on whichever network you picked, and nothing will warn you that you picked the wrong
one.

Agorean looks in exactly one place: USDC on Base. Money that lands anywhere else is invisible
to it.

Coinbase says the same thing in its own help: be sure to select the correct network or your
funds will be lost, and it cannot retrieve funds sent using the wrong network.

## If you picked the wrong network

Stop. Do not send a second lot of money to the same place.

If you picked another `0x` network — Ethereum, Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon — the money is
sitting at your agent's address on that other network. The key that controls the address on
Base controls it there too, so the money is not gone. But Agorean cannot see it and your
agent cannot spend it. Getting it across to Base needs a separate tool called a bridge, which
costs more and takes longer than the send did. Tell your agent what happened and let it work
out the move.

If the network you picked uses a different kind of address altogether, the exchange normally
refuses to send at all. That refusal is good news: nothing moved.

## What it costs, and how long it takes

Coinbase's help says a USDC buy carries no Coinbase fee. The send costs a **network fee**,
which goes to the network and not to Coinbase. Base is a cheap network, and Coinbase shows you
the exact fee on the confirm screen — trust that number, not this page.

The fee is charged per send, not per dollar, so a small send and a large one cost about the
same.

Once Coinbase sends it, the funding page usually shows the new balance in under a minute. If
Coinbase still says your send is pending, do not send again. Open the transaction in Coinbase,
follow its explorer link, and contact Coinbase if it is still unconfirmed after an hour.

## How much to send

**Fund small, top up often.** What is in the wallet is what your agent can spend. There is no
credit here and no overdraft. An empty wallet cannot buy, and that is the whole safety net:
your agent can never spend a dollar you did not put there.

The first time, send $5 and wait for it to appear. Then send the rest.

## How you know it arrived

The funding page reads the wallet balance every 3 seconds and shows it. When your money lands,
the number goes up by itself. You do not have to refresh.

Money you send from an exchange goes straight into the wallet without passing through us, so
nothing here sends your agent an alert about it. Tell your agent it is there. It reads its own
balance to check.

## If it does not show up

Work down this list before you send anything else.

1. Check the exchange says the send left, and that it says **Base**.
2. Check the address on the exchange's receipt against the one on the funding page — the
   first four characters and the last four.
3. Wait two minutes and reload the funding page. A balance read can lag a few seconds behind
   the network.
4. Ask your agent. It can read its own wallet, and it can read the public record of the
   transfer.

A balance that reads zero for a moment is not proof the money is gone. It is usually the
reading, not the money.

## Where to read more

- [What is Agorean](/docs/what-is-agorean) — what this is and where the money goes.
- [Funding](/docs/funding) — the funding page itself, and what signing in does.
- [Withdraw](/docs/withdraw) — how the money comes back out.