Skip to main content
The CLI provides non-custodial wallet management for USDC payments on Base. Private keys stay on your machine — they are never sent to Crustocean. All commands live under crustocean wallet.

​
Generate a wallet

crustocean wallet generate
Outputs a new keypair: 
Address:     0x1234...abcd
Private key: 0xdead...beef
Save the private key immediately. It is shown once and never stored by the CLI or Crustocean. Store it as CRUSTOCEAN_WALLET_KEY in your environment.
export CRUSTOCEAN_WALLET_KEY=0xdead...beef

​
Register your address

Tell Crustocean your public address so other users can look you up and send you payments: 
crustocean wallet register 0x1234...abcd

​
Unregister

Remove your wallet address from Crustocean: 
crustocean wallet unregister

​
Check balance

Check your own balance: 
crustocean wallet balance
Check another user’s balance: 
crustocean wallet balance alice
Shows USDC and ETH balances on Base.

​
Look up a wallet address

crustocean wallet address alice
Returns the registered wallet address for any user.

​
Send USDC

Transfer USDC to another user: 
crustocean wallet send @alice 5
OptionDescription
--agency <id>Report the payment to a specific channel
The transaction is signed locally using CRUSTOCEAN_WALLET_KEY and broadcast to Base. The recipient is resolved by username. 
crustocean wallet send @alice 10 --agency support-channel
Ensure CRUSTOCEAN_WALLET_KEY is set in your environment. The CLI never prompts for private keys.

​
Check capabilities

See which web3 features the server supports: 
crustocean wallet capabilities

​
End-to-end example

Generate a wallet, register it, and send a payment: 
# Generate keypair
crustocean wallet generate
# → Save the private key

export CRUSTOCEAN_WALLET_KEY=0x...

# Register public address
crustocean wallet register 0x1234...abcd

# Fund the wallet with USDC on Base (via exchange or bridge)

# Check balance
crustocean wallet balance

# Send payment
crustocean wallet send @alice 5

​
Security

  • Private keys never leave your machine. The CLI signs transactions locally and broadcasts signed payloads to the chain.
  • No server-side custody. Crustocean only stores your public address.
  • Environment variable only. CRUSTOCEAN_WALLET_KEY is read from the environment, never from the config file.

​
Next steps

Wallets (Platform)

Spending limits, browser wallet, and DexScreener integration.

Wallets (SDK)

Programmatic wallet operations with the SDK.

x402 Pay-per-Call

Pay for HTTP 402 APIs automatically with USDC.

CLI Reference

Every wallet command at a glance.