Written by: Deep Tide TechFlow
The AI theme continues to dominate the market, with $ai16z, $zerebro, and $griffain all going up on Binance contracts, while thematic narratives like $arc and $swarms soar, achieving tenfold increases within a week. Various AI Agents are emerging one after the other, and overall, the current AI-themed market can be described as - completely crazy.
In addition to the soaring prices of various tokens, the practicality of AI is also continuously evolving. Many AI projects are beginning to target the DeFi sector, allowing AI to perform complex DeFi operations, with the DeFAI concept frequently mentioned.
As Twitter user 0xJeff mentioned in the new article (DeFAI is the New DeFi): 'DeFAI is becoming the future of DeFi.' The trend of DeFAI has emerged, so what exactly is DeFAI? Which DeFAI concept projects are worth paying attention to?
Deep Tide Note: AI Agent markets have strong timeliness, with token prices fluctuating wildly, posing high risks. Investors should fully assess risks and participate cautiously. This article is solely based on market trends for information sharing; the author and platform make no guarantees regarding the completeness or accuracy of the content, and this article contains no investment advice.
What is DeFAI?
Although DeFi has become one of the pillar concepts of the crypto world, there are still certain threshold requirements for ordinary people to engage in specific operations.
To experience the conveniences brought by DeFi, an ordinary user needs to learn: how to find the right project platform, how to set up various wallets, differentiate various L1 + L2, prevent phishing scams, etc. ... Compared to that, the operations of DeFi remain too complex.
The emergence of DeFAI has changed this situation to some extent.
As the name suggests, DeFAI represents 'AI + DeFi,' utilizing AI to simplify the complex operational thresholds of DeFi, allowing more people to participate in DeFi with greater ease. Using DeFi services to manage assets is as convenient as chatting with GPT.
What projects are involved in the DeFAI concept?
The DeFAI concept is simple and easy to understand, and the first batch of DeFAI concept projects is beginning to emerge, currently mainly focused on three areas:
Abstract Layer
Self-trading AI agents
AI-driven dApp
Abstract Layer - Simplifying interaction operations
The abstract layer essentially overlays a user-friendly interactive interface on the complex operations of DeFi. Just like driving a car, users do not need to understand how the engine works; they only need to know how to drive.
Before DeFAI, there were already some simple attempts at abstract layers in DeFi, such as Uniswap's use of the abstract cross-chain intent standard ERC-7683 to optimize cross-chain paths. However, these solutions still require users to have a certain understanding of DeFi knowledge.
The abstract layer of the DeFAI era goes a step further, allowing users to express their investment intentions directly in natural language. For example, directly telling the AI Agent: 'I want to dollar-cost average ETH, $100 per week,' the system will automatically handle all the complex on-chain operations.
Currently, the most attention-grabbing abstract layer products in the market are Griffain, Orbit, and Neur. They share the common feature of attempting to allow users to perform DeFi operations through chat, but each has a different focus. Griffain emphasizes versatility, Orbit focuses on cross-chain, while Neur delves deeply into the Solana ecosystem.
Griffain
Token contract address:
KENJSUYLASHUMfHyy5o4Hp2FdNqZg1AsUPhfH2kYvEP
Griffain (@griffaindotcom) is an AI Agent in the early issuance of the DeFAI sector.
Griffain is divided into personal agents and specialized agents. Personal agents are AI Agents created and controlled by users, allowing them to customize instructions and continuously update the agent's memory. These agents can not only perform on-chain operations but also conduct information retrieval and are planned to support task delegation to other specialized agents in the future.
Specialized agents are professional AI created by Griffain. Several specialized agents, including Baxus, Blink, Onchain, Holiday, Sniper, and Flipper, have already been launched, each equipped with specific professional functions.
Currently, Griffain operates on an invitation basis, requiring early access passes or Griffain's Saga Genesis tokens. Once granted access, users can create their own AI agents and access Griffain's special agent network.
Orbit
Token contract address:
GekTNfm84QfyP2GdAHZ5AgACBRd69aNmgA5FDhZupump
Orbit (@orbitcryptoai) is an AI-driven DeFi assistant platform, with the core goal of simplifying user interactions with DeFi. Currently, Orbit has achieved seamless integration with over 100 blockchain networks and more than 175 protocols, enhancing cross-chain operation efficiency through AI technology. The platform's functionalities cover cross-chain betting and asset bridging, staking and yield farming strategy optimization, lending protocol access, and comprehensive portfolio management tools, allowing users to operate on 116 chains.
Neur
Token contract address:
3N2ETvNpPNAxhcaXgkhKoY1yDnQfs41Wnxsx5qNJpump
Neur (@neur_sh) is the smart assistant of the Solana ecosystem, using an open-source full-stack architecture supported by the Solana Agent Kit. The platform provides an intelligent agent system that supports natural language interaction and has integrated with major Solana protocols such as Jupiter and Magic Eden. Core features include smart wallet management, NFT collection analysis, real-time market tracking, etc., simplifying user interactions with DeFi and NFTs through an AI-driven interface.
Slate
Slate (@slate_ceo) is a project in the early stages of DeFAI, with its core feature being automation. User feedback shows that Slate's automation capabilities excel in executing complex trading strategies, drawing on well-known industry technologies like Chainlink's automation service concept to provide users with safe and cost-effective solutions.
Slate has not yet issued tokens and is still focused on product R&D.
AI Wayfinder
Wayfinder (@AIWayfinder) is an AI full-chain tool that enables user-owned autonomous AI Agents to navigate safely and effectively within and between blockchain ecosystems and applications, while independently trading their assets through a dedicated Web3 wallet.
Self-trading AI agents
Unlike traditional trading bots that can only execute preset programs, the new generation of AI trading agents possesses more powerful capabilities: extracting information from complex environments, context reasoning, learning patterns, and executing operations beyond original programming...
The field of AI trading agents is also transitioning from early entertainment purposes (such as betting on altcoins) to practical profit-making tools. But the key issue is: how to verify that an 'agent' is truly AI and not an ordinary bot or human operation.
To address this issue, the industry has introduced two important infrastructures:
Trusted Execution Environment (TEE): Ensures agents operate in a secure, tamper-proof environment
Transparent Execution Verification Framework: Ensures computational trustworthiness through technologies like zero-knowledge proofs
As autonomous agents are about to manage significant amounts of funds, these verification mechanisms become particularly important. Users need to clearly understand how agents manage risks and ensure the safety of their funds.
Although this field is still in its early stages, multiple projects are exploring these key technologies:
Almanak
Almanak (@Almanak__) Almanak is a platform focused on democratizing quantitative trading, with the core goal of enabling anyone to create and use AI trading agents to gain profits. The platform's core advantage lies in its unique simulator, which combines agent-based modeling and blockchain-driven Monte Carlo simulations to provide a high-precision predictive environment for financial strategies.
The platform conducts strategy testing and optimization through simulators and is responsible for strategy deployment and monitoring via an execution engine. Almanak incentivizes ecosystem participants through token rewards, with particular emphasis on incentivizing strategy contributors.
Cod3x
Cod3x (@Cod3xOrg) is a DeFAI ecosystem created by the Byte Mason team (developers from Fantom and Sonic Labs). Its core highlight is providing no-code building tools that allow users to easily create trading agents. Users can set trading strategies, personality traits, and even tweet styles for the agents.
The platform integrates a rich API and strategy library, and collaborates with Allora Network to leverage its advanced machine learning price prediction models to enhance the effectiveness of trading strategies. This allows users to access any dataset and develop financial strategies in minutes. The platform's flagship agent, Big Tony, performs trading operations on mainstream cryptocurrencies based on the Allora model, showcasing the practical application of AI-driven trading.
Axal & Gekko Agent
Token contract address:
0xf7b0dd0B642a6ccc2fc4d8FfE2BfFb0caC8C43C8
Axal (@getaxal) is an innovative AI trading platform with a flagship product, Autopilot, that allows users to create custom trading agents. Established in 2023, the project focuses on developing AI agent infrastructure, managing agent source, competitive auctions, and payment processing. Users can set up automated rebalancing strategies, yield harvesting conditions, and create custom token combinations through Autopilot. For example, users can set conditions such as 'automatically liquidate when the portfolio drops below a certain price.'
Axal recently partnered with Agora Finance to further expand its capabilities in automated trading strategies, achieving complex operations from rebalancing to creating custom token indices.
Gekko Agent (@Gekko_Agent) is an AI agent released by AXAL through Virtuals.io. Its main function is to share information about the crypto market and trading-related content, adopting a communication style reminiscent of 1980s Wall Street traders on social media.
ASYM
Token contract address:
KENJSUYLASHUMfHyy5o4Hp2FdNqZg1AsUPhfH2kYvEP
ASYM Agents (@ASYM41b07) are described as the 'cheat code' for memecoin trading, capable of analyzing large datasets from blockchains and social media to predict memecoin trends. (Mainly monitoring and trading tokens on the Pumpfun platform.)
The core functionality of the project is divided into two parts: one is the prediction system, where ASYM uses a set of machine learning models to predict the short-term price trends of tokens and automatically execute corresponding trading strategies based on these predictions; the other is social interaction, where the project has established an interactive bot on platform X that can communicate with users based on improvements to the a16z framework.
From the current development status, ASYM's official website has a low update frequency, and its activities on platform X mainly focus on publishing market analysis similar to AIXBT. The project regularly publishes some progress information through bot accounts, including accuracy data of forecasting models and development dynamics.
Project Plutus
Token contract address:
76PsEyML7UV9uiBDWMdG3itRRuupDuRs6nNpjNBpump
Project Plutus (@ProjectPlutus_) is an AI trading agent project deployed on the Solana chain, with its token PPCoin issued through the Pumpfun platform. The core goal of the project is to help users maximize profits while freeing them from cumbersome chart analysis and complex financial operations.
Project Plutus believes that merely providing research analysis like @aixbt_agent is not enough; it also needs to have autonomous trading capabilities. Therefore, the project designed a system that integrates analysis and trading: capable of conducting market research like aixbt while also executing autonomous trades through a wallet equipped with funds, allowing users to invest and withdraw funds (AUM). The system's main features include automated trading strategy execution, portfolio management optimization, and trading completion based on user-defined financial goals.
The project is developing more features, such as allowing Agents to assess project code quality on Github to expand analytical dimensions. In terms of token applications, users holding over 5,000,000 PPCoin can unlock more advanced analytical features, a mechanism similar to the token staking model of the Cookie platform, providing real utility for the token.
AI-driven DApps
AI-driven dApps represent a promising direction in the DeFAI field. These fully decentralized applications integrate AI or AI Agents to enhance functionality, automation, and user experience. Although this subfield is still in its infancy, some ecosystems and projects have already begun to emerge.
Mode Network
Token contract address:
0x084382d1cc4f4dfd1769b1cc1ac2a9b1f8365e90
Mode Network (@modenetwork), designed to attract high-tech AI x DeFi developers, is one of the most active ecosystems in this field. Multiple teams are already developing cutting-edge AI-driven applications on Mode:
ARMA (by Giza Tech)
ARMA (@0xARMAgeddon) is an emerging AI-driven yield optimization project within the Mode Network ecosystem, developed by Giza Tech (@gizatechxyz). This project focuses on automated yield management for USDC assets and is one of the core applications of the Mode Network AI Agent App Store. ARMA operates on a self-custody model, ensuring users' control over their assets through smart contracts. Its core function is to continuously monitor the yield rates of various lending protocols on the Mode Network and automatically execute capital rebalancing at the right time.
Modius
Modius is an autonomous agent supported by Autonolas (Olas) @autonolas, used to manage Balancer liquidity pools. It will launch in 2024 as part of the autonomous multi-agent system on Mode Network. Modius is joining the Mode Network AI agent ecosystem, including ARMA, to jointly promote the automation of DeFi.
Amplifi Lending Agents
Amplifi Lending Agents developed by Amplifi.Fi (@Amplifi_Fi) utilize AI algorithms to analyze market data, automatically adjust investment strategies, and provide users with optimized yield solutions. Core functions include intelligent asset allocation, risk management, and yield optimization, helping users achieve better investment returns in the DeFi market through automation. Amplifi Lending Agents are also integrated with Ironclad Finance, enabling automatic asset exchanges, borrowing on Ironclad, and maximizing yields through automated rebalancing.
HeyAnonai
Token contract address:
9McvH6w97oewLmPxqQEoHUAv3u5iYMyQ9AeZZhguYf1T
HeyAnonai (@HeyAnonai) can automatically execute complex operations like cross-chain bridging, token swapping, and staking, while aggregating and analyzing project data from multiple channels such as Twitter, Discord, and GitHub in real-time. Through natural language processing technology, HeyAnon helps users quickly access information on price movements, community sentiment, and development dynamics, enhancing DeFi investment decision-making efficiency.
Recently, @danielesesta attracted widespread attention through HeyAnonai's DeFAI theory. He announced that HeyAnon is developing the following:
An abstract layer for DeFi interfaces
DeFi agents for autonomous trading execution
Research and communication agents for acquiring, filtering, and interpreting relevant data
