Author: 0xJeff, Steak Studio; Translation: Golden Finance xiaozou
DeFi has always been the backbone of Web3. It is DeFi that highlights the practicality of blockchain. It provides us with the tools we need to achieve instant remittances, on-chain asset investment, intermediary-free lending, and cross-DeFi protocol strategies around the world. These are all financial freedoms within reach.
More importantly, DeFi solves real-world problems. It enables those who do not have traditional bank accounts to access financial services, eliminates middlemen, and operates around the clock, creating a truly global and inclusive financial system.
But let's face an obvious problem together: DeFiis really complicated.
Setting up a wallet, managing gas fees, and learning to avoid mines in an environment full of fraud is not very friendly. More and more L1, L2, and cross-chain ecosystems will only make things more difficult. For most people, the barrier to entry is too high.
It is this complexity that has held back the growth of DeFi, but DeFAI is starting to change that.
What is DeFAI?
DeFAI (DeFi + AI) makes DeFi accessible. DeFAI uses artificial intelligence to simplify complex interfaces and remove the barriers that prevent ordinary people from participating. Imagine a world where managing your DeFi portfolio is as easy as chatting with ChatGPT.
The first wave of DeFAI projects has now emerged, focusing on three areas:
1Abstraction Layers
The purpose of abstraction layers is to make DeFi more accessible by hiding the complexity of DeFi behind an intuitive interface. Abstraction layers allow users to interact with DeFi protocols using natural language commands instead of using complex dashboards.
Before the advent of artificial intelligence, abstraction layers like intent-based architectures simplified transaction execution. Platforms like CoWSwap and SYMMIO solve the liquidity fragmentation problem by enabling users to get the best pricing in decentralized liquidity pools, but they do not solve the core problem: DeFi is still daunting.
Now, AI solutions are filling the gap:
Griffain is the first solution to launch a token, and the product is still in early access and users need to be invited to access it. Griffain is more versatile and allows users to perform a variety of basic or complex operations, such as task automation (DCA), issuing meme coins, and airdropping meme coins by standard.
Orbit / Grift is the second solution to release tokens, which is aimed at on-chain DeFi experience. Orbit emphasizes cross-chain functions and integrates more than 200 protocols from over 117 chains, making it the most integrated of the three solutions.
Neur was the third solution released, but due to its open source nature, its valuation quickly surpassed Orbit. Neur positions itself as the Solana co-pilot designed specifically for the Solana ecosystem. Neur is powered by the SendAI Solana Agent Kit.
I personally use Slate, it's still in its early stages and no tokens have been released, but I like its automation capabilities. I mainly use it to set up conditional trades, such as selling 25% of the position if [xxx] reaches a market cap of $5 million, or buying $5,000 worth of tokens if [xxx] reaches a price of [xxxx].
Wayfinder Foundation is another interesting application worth watching. It's a behemoth that the PRIME/Parallel team is building.
2, Autonomous Trading Agents
Why spend hours mining for alpha, executing trades manually, and trying to optimize your portfolio when you can let an agent do it? Autonomous trading agents are taking the concept of trading robots to the next level, transforming them into dynamic companions that can adapt, learn, and make smarter decisions over time.
It should be said that trading robots are nothing new. They have been around for many years, based on static programming to perform predefined actions. But agents are fundamentally different:
They extract information from unstructured, ever-changing environments.
They reason about data in the context of a target.
They discover patterns over time and learn to exploit them.
They can perform actions that their owners have never explicitly programmed.
This niche industry is growing rapidly. What started out as entertainment has now turned into practical, profit-driven tools that help users trade more efficiently. However, there is an important challenge: How do you verify that an ”agent” is not just a bot, but even a human operating everything behind the scenes?
This is where the DeAIInfrastructure comes in.
The Role of DeAIin Validating Agents
Critical infrastructure like the Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) ensures that agents run securely and cannot be tampered with.
For example:
TEE: TEE, promoted by the Phala Network, provides secure enclaves where data is kept confidential. Phala’s experiments — like the Unruggable ICO and Sporedotfun — show how agents can perform tasks while maintaining data integrity.
Transparent Execution/Verification Frameworks: Innovative techniques like zkML (zero-knowledge machine learning) or opML provide verifiability of reasoning and computation. Hyperbolic’s Proof of Sampling (PoSP) is a prominent example. This mechanism combines game theory and sampling to ensure accurate and efficient computation in a decentralized environment.
Why is this important?
When autonomous proxies start handling large amounts of TVL — imagine $100 million or more in TVL — users will have extremely high assurance requirements. They will need to understand how the proxies manage risk, verify the framework under which they operate, and ensure that their funds don’t end up in some random memecoin.
It’s still early days in this space, but we’re seeing some promising projects exploring these verifiable tools. This is something to keep in mind as DeFAI develops.
The top autonomous trading agent projects
that I am following closely
are as follows:
(1)Almanak
Almanak provides users with institutional-grade quantitative AI agents that address the complexity, fragmentation, and execution challenges of DeFi.
The platform forks the EVM chain and performs Monte Carlo simulations in a realistic environment, taking into account unique complexities such as MEV, gas costs, and transaction ordering.
It uses a TEE (Trusted Execution Environment) to ensure privacy of strategy execution and security of alpha insights, and supports non-custodial fund handling through the Almanak wallet, allowing precise authorization of permissions to agents.
The Almanak infrastructure supports the ideation, creation, evaluation, optimization, deployment, and monitoring of financial strategies. The ultimate goal is to enable these agents to learn and adapt over time.
Almanak raised $1 million on LEGION, which was heavily oversubscribed. Next steps include a beta launch and agent deployment/initial strategies for beta testers. It will be interesting to see how these quantitative agents perform.
(2) Cod3x / Big Tony
Developed by the Byte Mason team (best known for their Fantom/SonicLabs work), Cod3x is a DeFAI ecosystem designed to simplify the creation of trading agents. The platform offers a no-code development tool that allows users to create agents by specifying trading strategies, personalities, and even tweeting styles.
Users can access any dataset and leverage the API and strategy library to develop financial strategies in minutes. Cod3x integrates the Allora network to enhance trading strategies using its advanced ML price prediction models.
Big Tony is the flagship agent that trades based on the Allora model, entering and exiting based on its predictions. Cod3x is working to create a thriving ecosystem of autonomous trading agents.
One point worth noting is Cod3x’s approach to liquidity. Unlike the common alt:alt LP structure popularized by Virtuals, Cod3x uses a stablecoin:alt LP structure fueled by Cod3x’s own CDP (collateralized debt position) cdxUSD.
This adds more stability and confidence to LPs (liquidity providers) when providing liquidity compared to the volatility of alt:alt trading pairs.
Cod3x also has its own DeFi primitives like Liquidity AMOs and Mini Pools that deepen liquidity and add more functionality/DeFi building blocks for agents in its ecosystem.
Notes:
- Axal / Gekko AI – Axal’s Auto-Tuning product, where complex multi-step crypto strategies are handled by agents. Gekko has Auto-Tuning integrated. I look forward to seeing how Gekko’s integration with Auto-Tuning performs data-driven trading.
- ASYM - Described by many as a "cheat code" for memecoin trading, the ASYM agent is able to analyze large data sets from blockchain and social media to predict memecoin trends. ASYM has consistently outperformed the market. ASYM has proven a 3-4x return rate through backtesting. Very much looking forward to seeing how it performs in live trading.
- Project Plutus - I really like the name PPCOIN.
3、AIPowereddApps
AI-powered dApps are a promising emerging area in the DeFAI space. They are fully fledged decentralized applications that integrate AI or AI agents to enhance functionality, automation, and user experience. While the space is still in its early stages, some ecosystems and projects have begun to stand out.
One of the most active ecosystems in the space is the Mode Network, an L2 ecosystem designed to attract highly skilled AI x DeFi developers. There are already several teams working on cutting-edge AI use cases on Mode:
ARMA: Developed by Giza, autonomous stablecoin farming strategies tailored to user preferences.
Modius: Autonomous agent farming Balancer LP, powered by Olas.
AmplifiLending Agents: Developed by Amplifi, these agents integrate with Ironclad to automatically trade assets, take out loans on Ironclad, and maximize returns through automatic rebalancing.
The core of the ecosystem is the native MODE token. Token holders can stake their MODE tokens to obtain veMODE, which provides airdrops from AI agents, project whitelist access, and additional ecosystem benefits. Mode positions itself as an innovation hub for AI x DeFi, and expects its impact to grow significantly in 2025.
Separately, Daniele made a splash with his DeFAI theory via HeyAnon.
He announced that HeyAnon is working on:
A DeFi agent for autonomous trade execution
A research and communication agent for acquiring, filtering and interpreting relevant data
The market responded enthusiastically, with the market cap of the ANON token soaring from $10 million to $130 million. Daniele seems to have brought back the excitement of TIME Wonderland, but this time with stronger foundations and a clearer vision (hopefully).
In addition to these two ecosystems, there are many teams building their own AI dApps. I will share more in the future once the main ecosystem around these dApps is formed.
Conclusion
DeFAI is changing DeFi, making it smarter, simpler, and more accessible.
With abstraction layers simplifying users' interactions, autonomous trading agents managing portfolios, and AI-driven dApps optimizing use cases, we are seeing the dawn of a new era.
Not the DeFAI Summer of 2020, but the DeFAI Summer of 2025!
Joy
