Today we're going to walk through the process of creating and funding a wallet on the BASE blockchain via Coinbase, show you how to use those funds to buy SPS and how to bridge your SPS in game. We'll provide images and step-by-step instructions for the entire process. If you're new to interacting with DeFi, don't worry, we're going to make this as simple as possible and you'll learn a valuable new skill that you can use going forward!

Please note that while this article will be comprehensive in terms of the technical process of demonstrating how to buy tokens from Coinbase and convert them into SPS, it's up to the reader to research and understand any local or regional regulations as related to cryptocurrencies with which they may be required to comply.

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Let's Start From the Very Beginning

It's important to first make sure that you have an EVM wallet set up. EVM stands for "Ethereum Virtual Machine" and you can think of this as the operating system or framework in which the smart contracts and blockchains that we'll be interacting with work under. There are many great options out there like Rabby or Metamask.

You can find a guide on setting up Rabby here.

You can find a guide on setting up MetaMask here.

There are many other wallets, but if you're very new to this, you may want to try Rabby. Rabby has a lot of great quality of life features, support for any EVM chain (Ethereum, BSC, BASE and more) as well as many safety features to help protect users from bad actors.

Please note: It's important to be vigilant with any wallet you choose to utilize as none of them can protect you entirely against user error.

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Next Stop: Coinbase

Now that you have your new EVM wallet set up, go ahead and log into your Coinbase account. If you need help setting up a Coinbase account or figuring out how to set up your payment methods, you can find their support article on how to do so here.

Once you're logged in, select the USDC token and click Deposit. You'll want to enter the amount that you're trying to deposit as well as select your funding method. Here you can see that we're going to deposit $100 via debit card and we'll receive the USDC token:

Click the blue "Preview" button to proceed.

We can then review the terms of our purchase before confirming. In this instance, we're paying with a Debit card to get instant access to our tokens and we're paying a $2.44 processing fee for the convenience. These terms can vary depending on your funding method, some of which may not have fees or may have time delays before you can access your tokens. If you're new to using Coinbase, please review carefully before clicking the blue "Deposit Now" button to avoid any confusion.

After we press the blue "Deposit Now" button, we should see the following message:

Once our payment has been confirmed and processed, we should then be able to find our USDC token balance:

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A Brief Stop at the Gas Station

If this is your very first time using your new BASE wallet that we set up at the start of this guide, then you'll need to do one more thing before we proceed. EVM blockchains have gas fees and it's important we fill up our tank if we want our transactions to go anywhere. So before we move forward, let's put a couple of dollars in the tank so we don't get stranded.

Fortunately gas fees on the BASE blockchain are very cheap, usually only a couple of pennies each. Let's convert a few of our USDC that we just bought to Ethereum before we proceed. We'll then move this ETH and the USDC to our BASE wallet so we can finally get our SPS!

Now that we've got our USDC, it's as simple as clicking the "Convert" tab at the top right. From there we'll select From: USDC (which will show your available balance) and for the To: token let's select Ethereum. Below, we're converting USDC for $5 of Ethereum:

We'll then click the blue "Review order" button and that should take us to the following screen to confirm:

Double check the terms and when you're ready, click the blue "Convert now" button. Once that's finished, we should see the following breakdown on our "Home" screen:

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Back on the Road to BASE

Now that we have our tokens in our account and we're ready to move them. Let's open up our EVM wallet and find our address. EVM wallets will actually work on multiple chains and a wallet like Rabby can even detect the correct chain for you on many popular applications, such as Aerodrome, which we'll visit next.

First the top red circle in the image below will show you where to copy your EVM address. You can click the squares to easily copy the address to your clipboard. The bottom circle is where you can view which chain you're currently connected to:

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Sending ETH to BASE

Now that we have our address, let's withdraw our tokens from Coinbase to the BASE blockchain. If you need to fund your new wallet with ETH, you can visit the Crypto tab on your Home screen by clicking here:

You should then be able to see your Ethereum balance and you'll want to click the dots in the first circle and then select Send from the expanded menu:

We'll then find ourselves at this screen, where we'll want to paste our EVM address into the search bar:

On the next screen, be sure to select "Base" as the network we want to use:

From here, you can click the Max button or enter your desired amount of tokens to send. When you're ready, click the blue "Preview" button:

Next let's double check we have the correct address and network selected. Remember, there's no "undo" option on a blockchain. Once you send it, it's final. If you're new to this, you can always do a small test transaction first. Once you're ready press the blue "Send now" button:

We should then be met with the following message:

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Sending USDC to BASE

Sending USDC works the same way as sending the ETH that we just outlined above, but let's walk through it as well just in case! Select the USDC token from the Home screen where we originally purchased it and click the "Send" button as shown below:

We'll then find ourselves at this screen, where we'll want to paste our EVM address into the search bar:

On the next screen, be sure to select "Base" as the network we want to use:

From here, you can click the Max button or enter your desired amount of tokens to send. When you're ready, click the blue "Preview" button:

Next let's double check we have the correct address and network selected. Remember, there's no "undo" option on a blockchain. Once you send it, it's final. If you're new to this, you can always do a small test transaction first. Once you're ready press the blue "Send now" button:

We should then be met with the following message:

We should now have our tokens in our BASE wallet!

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Let's Get Our SPS

Now that we've done the hard part and funded our EVM wallet, we have a few options of how to proceed to getting that sweet SPS! We can use a versatile wallet like Rabby to easily swap within the wallet and never have to visit a front end at all. Alternatively, for users that want a bit more control over their swaps and don't mind the more advanced route, they can use Aerodrome to swap. We'll show you how to do it both ways so you can decide for yourself!

In-Wallet Swap

First up, let's explore an in wallet swap! This is hands down the quickest and easiest option to convert your USDC to SPS. There are similar options in many wallets, but they may also be a bit more confusing for new users, so we're going to be using Rabby for the example.

Here you can see that we have our multichain wallet selected and connected to the BASE blockchain. Click the Swap button circled below:

Once we click the Swap button, we'll find ourselves on the following screen. We'll want to select From USDC and To SPS. If this is the first time you've done this, you'll need to input the SPS contract address for the To box.

The SPS contract is 0x578661e9a09eee6b2cd97d4ded1ccbae7b8516b9

Once you click the To box, you'll be able to paste in the SPS contract address and select it like so:

Now that we have our tokens selected, enter the amount of USDC we want to convert to SPS and review the amount we're receiving. There's a slider where you can select a percentage of your USDC so that you don't have to type it manually.

Please note that this is your last chance to review the transaction. Once you click the Approve and Swap button and then Confirm, the transaction will be executed:

Now we can see that the swap was successful and I have SPS tokens in my wallet:

Aerodrome Swap

If for whatever reason you don't want to use the in-wallet swap option, then you may also use Aerodrome to swap the tokens as well. You can use the following link which will already have USDC to SPS selected for you:
USDC to SPS on Aerodrome

The first thing to do is to connect our wallet. Make sure that you have your EVM wallet unlocked and if it doesn't connect automatically, then click Connect circled below:

From here, you'll select your type of wallet. If yours isn't listed, like Rabby or Metamask, then you'll select Browser Wallet:

You'll receive the following wallet notification. If everything is correct then press Connect.

Once we're connected, we need to Sign-In and accept the ToS:

Now that we're logged in, let's go back and finish our swap. Much like with the in-wallet swap, you can input the SPS contract manually. This link just automatically populates the correct contract for you: USDC to SPS on Aerodrome

If you prefer, you can select USDC on the Sell box and then input the SPS contract in the BUY box for yourself.

The SPS contract is 0x578661e9a09eee6b2cd97d4ded1ccbae7b8516b9

Whichever option you choose, you'll see the following screen where you can select how much USDC you'd like to convert to SPS. If you prefer you can click the small Percent sign in the first circle and select a percent of tokens to swap. Otherwise you can type the amount in manually in the second circle. Double check how much you'll receive, underlined below, and you can see a breakdown of price and fees above the Swap button.

When you're ready, click the Swap button and we'll have to sign a couple of transactions:

The first transaction is to approve your wallet to send a specific amount of tokens to the contract:

The second transaction is to approve the actual swap:

It may seem confusing at first, but yes we do have to sign both transactions to do the swap. Every time.

Once we've signed both transactions, if our swap was successful we'll see the following message:

Let's Move Our SPS In Game!

Congratulations, whichever option you chose, you now have SPS in your BASE wallet! Let's move it in game.

First stop, we need to go to the External Wallet management page in game. There we'll want to select BASE. We need to paste our EVM wallet address in the area circled below and then we click the green Save button.

If you don't remember where to find your EVM wallet address you can copy it with the red circle below:

Once we've entered our address, we'll need to click the checkbox and then the green Save button. We'll get a Hive Keychain pop up to sign a message confirming we want to link our wallets. Once we sign it, we should see the following image. You'll know you did it right if you see the red Clear button.

Now our wallets are linked and we should be able to see our SPS balance that's currently in our BASE wallet in the in game dashboard. You can get there by clicking the SPS balance in the first red circle below. From there you should be able to see your balance in the second red circle.

If you don't see anything, refresh the page and if you still aren't seeing any tokens listed, go back to the previous step and ensure you linked your external wallet correctly.

Now that we have our wallets linked, we can click the Transfer button to bring them in game:

On the Transfer page, we want to select From Base and To In Game in the first circle below. We can then type in the amount of tokens or simply hit the Max button in the second circle. Then we just press the green Transfer button in the third circle:

Next we will review our transaction and then press the green Start Transfer button:

Your wallet should ask you to connect to the Splinterlands website if it isn't already connected which will populate the From Wallet section on the Transfer page:

We then need to Sign the transaction to approve the token:

Lastly we need to Sign a transaction to approve the transfer:

Then we just wait a few minutes and our tokens are delivered to our in game wallet:

We've now explored how to get USDC from Coinbase to the BASE blockchain, walked through 2 options for converting the USDC to SPS and then learned how to move it in game. Great job!