Editor's Note: In recent weeks, we have experienced the competition for AI Agent track architecture and infrastructure, with ai16z and Virtuals still holding the lead, while dark horse swarms are striving to catch up, showing strong competitiveness. Meanwhile, the market is gradually paying attention to the professionalization of AI Agent industries, specifically AI agents with practical utility. The integration of AI and DeFi is considered the first specialized AI Agent industry expected to explode. In this regard, overseas renowned DeFi KOL Edgy shared his views and introduced noteworthy issued and unissued DeFAI projects, which Odaily Planet Daily has translated.
Everyone is tired of AI reply bots; they are now somewhat saturated. The focus is shifting to AI agents with practical uses. The first practical utility AI agent industry has already arrived: DeFAI (also known as AiFi or AgentFi), whose core is that people can use AI agents to simplify DeFi and bring more profits.
Here are my reasons for being optimistic about this industry:
Abstract: It solves the UI/UX complexity issues of DeFi through a natural language interface;
User profitability: Earn more profits through automated trading, yield optimization, and AI-enhanced trading strategies, which can reduce costly human errors;
Income potential: There are already protocols like Bananagun and Photon that make trading easier, and their current income potential is like printing money. Once product-market fit is established, we can see some interesting tokenomics emerge in the DeFAI industry.
Finally, the market's heat is rising, and you can feel the energy and sentiment shifting towards DeFAI. I believe billions of dollars will flow into this industry in the coming months, and now is a good time to lay out.
DeFAI projects with issued tokens
Griffain
Market Cap: $393 million
Contract: KENJSUYLASHUMfHyy5o4Hp2FdNqZg1AsUPhfH2kYvEP
Griffain was built by Solana's OG builder @tonyplasencia3. He previously participated in building Underdog Protocol and blnk.fun. Griffain allows users to search and complete any on-chain operation using natural language commands.
It can be imagined as an Appstore where users can use different agents to complete various tasks, including following wallet trades, creating meme coins, and automating profits.
Hey Anon
Market Cap: $137 million
Contract: 9McvH6w97oewLmPxqQEoHUAv3u5iYMyQ9AeZZhguYf1T
Hey Anon focuses on natural language trading interfaces, autonomous DeFi agents, as well as research and communication agents. DWF Labs has assembled an AI agent fund and has granted $20 million to Hey Anon. Currently, there are several video demonstrations introducing the project's products, with a public beta expected to open at the end of January.
Another reason Anon has gained widespread attention is its controversial founder Daniele Sesta. He created a protocol worth $2 billion (Spell and Wonderland) in the last cycle, and perhaps he can do it again in this cycle.
Mode
Market Cap: $97.3 million
Contract: 0xdfc7c877a950e49d2610114102175a06c2e3167a
Mode Network is an Ethereum Layer 2 that focuses on building a DeFi ecosystem fully operated by AI agents. More than 129 AI agents have already been built on Mode Network. These agents have currently conducted over 1,600 DeFi transactions. While some of these agents do not yet have issued tokens, some popular agents include:
Arma by Giza: An agent that helps users optimize USDC liquidity mining yields across Mode applications;
Brian: Allows users to execute trades using natural language and easily deploy contracts;
Sturdy: Leverages AI-driven yield vaults to aggregate and optimize yield rates;
MODIUS by Olas: Allows users to co-own or launch their own AI agents to optimize liquidity mining strategies;
Amplifi: Users receive optimal yield rates across multiple chains by leveraging cross-chain liquidity and AI optimization.
Hive
Token BUZZ Market Cap: $90 million
Contract: 9DHe3pycTuymFk4H4bbPoAJ4hQrr2kaLDF6J6aAKpump
Hive aims to simplify DeFi trading through composable on-chain AI agents, integrating trading terminals that autonomously complete on-chain operations through natural language command. Hive has previously announced a collaboration with Zerebro to build cluster communication infrastructure to enhance the DeFi agent suite, and Hive has already supported Apple Pay and Google Pay.
Hive founder Jason Hedman has won multiple AI hackathon championships, including first place in Microsoft's production AI hackathon, and has also participated in the AI hackathon competition on the Solana chain. Based on previous 'achievements,' he is also a strong favorite to win this Solana AI hackathon.
Orbit
Token GRIFT Market Cap: $48 million
Contract: GekTNfm84QfyP2GdAHZ5AgACBRd69aNmgA5FDhZupump
Orbit's agent allows users to interact with multiple protocols across different chains. The project is built by the crypto payment platform SphereOne team, which raised $2.5 million in 2023 and currently supports over 100 chains, including EVM, Solana, Aptos, Sui, Cosmos, and Bitcoin networks.
SphereOne aims to create a complete 'onboarding process' from purchasing cryptocurrency to using AI agents to execute on-chain operations.
Neur
Market Cap: $53 million
Contract: 3N2ETvNpPNAxhcaXgkhKoY1yDnQfs41Wnxsx5qNJpump
Binance Alpha has recently launched Neur. Neur allows users to interact with leading Solana native protocols using natural language. The protocol is fully open source and community-driven, while the team continuously launches bounty programs to encourage developer contributions. Neur's GitHub has received over 350 stars so far, but the product is still in beta. Users must pay 1 SOL to experience its limited early product.
Hiero
Token HTERM Market Cap: $13 million
Contract: BDW8YHasD3NSDjSHU9Xy6KXtshGayMGQfj5bJpLcpump
Hiero is a multi-chain AI agent currently operating on Solana and Base chains. Hiero also allows users to use natural language commands for agents to autonomously complete transactions, including buying and selling tokens and performing simple token analysis. It also announced that more autonomous features will be launched in the future, such as posting, DCA, limit buy and sell tokens, and has recently indicated that it will also build DeFi agent infrastructure.
The founder of Hiero is Johannes, who is also the co-founder of the Web3 startup studio corpus.io aimed at data science and DeFi startups, and has previously served as the Chief Data Scientist at ConsenSys.
ASYM
Market Cap: $11 million
Contract: DNMTk67urDBxEEVRx9HjVzCVu8en4Kgg5HfZy3E6pump
ASYM is an AI-driven trading agent that has achieved 3-4 times ROI in real trading of tokens like $NEUR and $GRAPH. Its agent trading profits revert to ASYM, driving buy pressure while locking up 28% of the supply. ASYM focuses on DeFi automation and agent infrastructure, using on-chain and social data to identify current meme coin trends, aiming to consistently outperform the market.
Gekko AI
Market Cap: $15 million
Contract: 0xf7b0dd0B642a6ccc2fc4d8FfE2BfFb0caC8C43C8
Gekko AI is a trading agent fairly launched by Axal through the Virtuals platform. Although the Axal team does not hold any tokens, Gekko is a trading agent that provides bold crypto strategies, integrated with Axal's Autopilot, which not only brings traffic but also improves the product.
Axal is a verifiable agent network supported by a16z and Unusual Ventures. Currently in closed testing, Axal aims to integrate autonomous agents into everyday tasks, from trading to flight bookings.
Unissued tokens but worth paying attention to DeFAI projects
Cod3x
Cod3x is a DeFAI ecosystem that supports no-code creation of trading agents, allowing anyone to create trading agents using a growing library of strategies and APIs. It integrates Allora's machine learning models for advanced strategies and uses cdxUSD-based liquidity to maintain stability. Its flagship agent Big Tony (market cap $6.9 million) uses AI-driven predictions to trade tokens. Cod3x aims to build the largest economic AI agent community.
Almanak
Almanak is a DeFi platform for building autonomous financial agents using institutional-grade tools. It conducts real-world strategy testing by forking EVM chains and combines MEV and Gas complexities. It uses TEE to protect privacy and processes non-custodial funds using the Almanak wallet. It has raised $1 million on the Legion launchpad and is expected to launch a beta agent in the second quarter of 2025.
WayFinder Protocol
WayFinder Protocol aims to deploy users' own AI agents with just one text message. Their 'wayfinding paths' enable agents to seamlessly navigate DeFi, including token swaps, liquidity mining, NFT launches, and more, all with a single command. It will support Ethereum, Solana, Base, and other chains.
What sets WayFinder apart is that agents can share learning outcomes across the entire network. However, the token is not yet online, but prime stakers will receive 40% of the prompt token supply.
Slate
Slate is an AI tool that automates trading through real-time convergence alerts by combining Telegram, Discord, X, and on-chain channels. But it’s not just notifications; it can also execute trades in real-time on Solana, Base, and Hyperliquid, providing MEV protection and optimized routing. It is designed for traders seeking precision and speed without manual operation.
Conclusion
Since the end of 2020, I have been working in the DeFi industry. I love that era full of possibilities. It felt like a brand new tokenomics design or innovation appeared every week. But now DeFi has matured, innovation has begun to slow down, and the addition of AI will lead DeFi into a new revival.
The current market situation is very unstable, but we do not have to FOMO; we will gradually gain more public access and see which protocols can fulfill their promises. In summary, regardless, this is an industry you should pay attention to.
There are also some other ideas:
It will be interesting to see if any older DeFi giants quickly start creating AI-based front ends;
We are still in the early stages, so we are in the 'selling dreams' stage. The risks are high because there are many execution risks. In a few months, many protocols will open for testing, and we will judge based on the execution of the protocols;
Use some tools (like DexScreener) to create your own DeFAI project watchlist.
This article is authorized for reprint from: (ForesightNews)
Original author: Edgy
'DeFi + AI New Track! Reviewing 13 potential DeFAI projects, is now a good time to lay out?' This article was first published in 'Crypto City.'
