[bug] ethers/ethers5: Coinbase Smart Wallet and Base Account disconnect on page refresh (wagmi is fine)

[kamal9494]

Link to minimal reproducible example

https://appkit-lab.reown.com/appkit?name=ethers

Steps to Reproduce

I also tested with the latest published version and the bug is still there.

Do this in a browser WITHOUT the Coinbase Wallet extension installed (or with it disabled).

1. Open https://appkit-lab.reown.com/appkit?name=ethers
2. Click "Connect" and choose "Coinbase Wallet"
3. A popup opens on keys.coinbase.com. Sign in with passkey and approve.
4. Wallet is connected, address is shown in UI.
5. Refresh the page.
6. Wallet is disconnected.

Screen.Recording.2026-08-19.at.3.15.02.AM.mov

Summary

Expected: after connecting with Coinbase Smart Wallet or Base Account, a page refresh should keep the wallet connected, the same way it does for MetaMask.

Actual: on refresh the wallet is disconnected.

Only the ethers and ethers5 adapters are affected. wagmi works fine. The Coinbase browser extension also works fine. It looks like this started in 1.8.15 (after the change that lazy loads the Coinbase SDK, PR #5336) and is still there in the latest version.

I have looked into the cause and have a small PR ready for ethers and ethers5 with tests. I will link it here!

List of related npm package versions

    "@reown/appkit": "^1.8.23",
    "@reown/appkit-adapter-ethers": "^1.8.23",

Node.js Version

v20.19.6

Package Manager

yarn@1.22.19

[linear]

REOWN-4810