DeFi has always been the backbone of Web3. It’s what makes blockchain practical, giving us the tools to send money across the globe instantly, invest in assets on-chain, borrow or lend without intermediaries, and stack strategies across DeFi protocols. It’s financial freedom at your fingertips.

More importantly, DeFi solves real-world problems. It empowers the unbanked to access financial services, cuts out middlemen, and operates 24/7, creating a truly global, inclusive financial system.

But let’s address the elephant in the room: DeFi is complex.

Setting up a wallet, managing gas fees, navigating through scams and rugs—it’s not exactly grandma-friendly. The ever-expanding list of L1s, L2s, and cross-chain ecosystems has only made things harder. For most people, the barrier to entry is just too high.

This complexity has held DeFi back, but that’s starting to change with DeFAI

What is DeFAI?

DeFAI (DeFi + AI) takes DeFi and makes it accessible. By leveraging AI, it simplifies complex interfaces and removes the friction that stops everyday people from participating. Imagine a world where managing your DeFi portfolio is as easy as chatting with ChatGPT.

The first wave of DeFAI projects is starting to emerge, primarily focusing on three areas:

• Abstraction Layers
• Autonomous Trading Agents
• AI-Powered dApps

1. Abstraction Layers

Abstraction layers aim to make DeFi easier by hiding its complexity behind intuitive interfaces. They let users interact with DeFi protocols using natural language commands instead of clunky dashboards.

Before AI, abstraction layers like intent-based architecture simplified trade execution. Platforms like @CoWSwap and @symm_io allowed users to get the best pricing across fragmented liquidity pools, solving the liquidity fragmentation, but they didn’t solve the core issue: DeFi still feels daunting.

Now, AI-powered solutions are stepping in to bridge the gap:

• Griffain is the first to launch the token, the product remains early-access only and requires an invite for you to access. Griffain is more generalized, allowing users to perform myriad of actions from basic to complex ones like task automation (DCA), launching memecoins & airdropping them with criteria, etc

• Orbit / Grift is the second to launch the token, product is geared towards on-chain defi experiences. Orbit put emphasis on cross-chain functionality given its integrated to over 117 chains and 200 protocols, the highest number of integrations out of the 3 protocols

• Neur is the third to launch but quickly took over Orbit in term of valuation due to the nature of it being open-source. Neur positions itself as Solana co-pilot designed for Solana ecosystem. Neur is powered by @sendaifun Solana Agent Kit

The one that I’m personally using is @slate_ceo. They’re very early atm and there’s no token but I love their automations features. I mainly use it to set conditional trades like if [xxxx] reaches $5m in MC, sell 25% of my position, or something like if [xxx] reaches the price of [xxxx] purchase $5000 worth of the token.

@AIWayfinder is another interesting one to watch out for. This is a behemoth in the making by the $PRIME / @ParallelTCG team

2. Autonomous Trading Agents

Why spend hours digging for alpha, manually executing trades, and trying to optimize your portfolio when you could have an agent do it for you? Autonomous trading agents are taking the idea of trading bots to the next level, transforming them into dynamic companions that adapt, learn, and make smarter decisions over time.

To clarify, trading bots aren’t new. They’ve been around for years, executing predefined actions based on static programming. But agents are fundamentally different:

• They extract information from unstructured and constantly changing environments.
• They reason about data within the context of their objectives.
• They discover patterns and learn to leverage them over time.
• They can perform actions their owners never explicitly programmed.

Credit to @Almanak__’s litepaper for summing up the distinction between agents and bots so well.

This sub-sector is evolving quickly. What started as entertainment—agents potentially gambling on shitcoins for laughs—has shifted toward practical, profit-driven tools that can help users trade more effectively. However, there’s an important challenge: How do you verify that an “agent” isn’t just a bot or even a human acting behind the scenes?

This is where DeAI infrastructure plays a critical role.

The Role of DeAI in Verifying Agents

Key infrastructure like Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) ensures agents operate securely and without tampering.

For example:

• TEE: Popularized by @PhalaNetwork, TEEs provide secure enclaves where data is processed confidentially. Phala’s experiments—like the Unruggable ICO and Sporedotfun—show how agents can execute tasks while maintaining complete data integrity.

• Transparent Execution / Verificiation Frameworks: Innovations like zkML (zero-knowledge machine learning) or opML offer inference and computation verifiability. @hyperbolic_labs‘ Proof-of-Sampling (PoSP) is a standout. This mechanism combines game theory and sampling to ensure computations are accurate and efficient in decentralized environments.

Why Does This Matter?

When autonomous agents start handling significant TVL—imagine $100m or more—users will demand guarantees. They’ll need to understand how agents manage risks, verify the frameworks they operate under, and be assured that their funds won’t end up YOLOing into random memecoins.

This sector is still early, but we’re seeing promising projects explore these verifiability tools. It’s something to keep in mind as DeFAI evolves.

For a deeper dive into DeAI infrastructure trends, check out this article:

Top Autonomous Trading Agent Projects That I’m Monitoring

1. @Almanak__

Almanak offers institutional-grade quant AI agents to users, addressing the complexity, fragmentation, and execution challenges in DeFi.

The platform forks EVM chains to perform Monte Carlo simulations in realistic environments, considering unique complexities like MEV, gas costs, and transaction ordering. It employs TEEs to ensure strategy execution remains private, keeping alpha insights protected, and implements non-custodial fund handling via Almanak Wallets, allowing precise permission delegation to agents.

The Almanak infrastructure facilitates the ideation, creation, evaluation, optimization, deployment, and monitoring of financial strategies. The ultimate goal is for these agents to learn and adapt over time.

Almanak raised $1m on @legiondotcc, heavily oversubscribed. Next steps include beta launch and initial strategy/agent deployment with beta testers. Watching how these quant agents perform is going to be fun.

2. @Cod3xOrg / @BigTonyXBT

Cod3x, created by the Byte Mason team (known for their work on Fantom and @SonicLabs), is a DeFAI ecosystem aiming to simplify the creation of trading agents. The platform provides a no-code builder tool, enabling users to build agents by specifying trading strategies, personality, and even tweet style.

Users can access any dataset and develop financial strategies within minutes, leveraging a library of APIs and strategies. Cod3x integrates with @AlloraNetwork, using its advanced ML price prediction models to enhance trading strategies.

Big Tony is the flagship agent trading based on Allora’s models, entering and exiting majors based on its predictions. Cod3x is working to create a thriving ecosystem of autonomous trading agents.

One notable feature is Cod3x’s liquidity approach. Instead of the common alt:alt LP structure popularized by @virtuals_io, Cod3x uses a stablecoin:alt LP fueled by cdxUSD, Cod3x’s own CDP.

This offers more stability and confidence for liquidity providers to provide liquidity compared to the volatility of alt:alt pairs.

Cod3x also has its own DeFi primitives, such as Liquidity AMOs and Mini Pools, which deepen liquidity and add more functionality / defi legos to its agents in its ecosystem

Notable Mentions

- @getaxal / @Gekko_Agent — Axal’s Auto-pilot product where agents handle complex, multi-step crypto strategies. Gekko is integrated w/ auto-pilot. I’m waiting to see how Gekko will be performing data-driven trades w/ Auto-pilot when it’s live

- @ASYM41b07 — described as a “cheat code” for the memecoin trading by many, ASYM agents are capable of analyzing large datasets from the blockchain and social media to predict memecoin trends. ASYM been outperforming the market. ASYM has demonstrated 3-4x returns via backtesting. Will be interesting to see how it performs on live trades

- @ProjectPlutus_ — I just love the name $PPCOIN (lmao)

3. AI-powered dApps

AI-powered dApps represent a promising but nascent area within the DeFAI space. These are fully-fledged decentralized applications that integrate AI or AI Agents to enhance functionality, automation, and user experience. While this segment is still in its early stages, some ecosystems and projects are starting to stand out.

One of the most active ecosystems in this space is @modenetwork, a Layer 2 designed to attract highly technical AI x DeFi builders. Mode is home to several teams working on cutting-edge AI-powered use cases:

• ARMA: Autonomous stablecoin farming tailored to user preferences, developed by @gizatechxyz.

• Modius: Autonomous agents farming Balancer LPs, powered by @autonolas.

• Amplifi Lending Agents: Developed by @Amplifi_Fi, these agents integrate with @IroncladFinance to auto-swap assets, lend on Ironclad, and maximize yields through auto-rebalancing.

At the heart of this ecosystem is $MODE, the native token. Holders can stake their $MODE for veMODE, which offers airdrops from AI agents, whitelist access to projects, and additional ecosystem perks. Mode is positioning itself as a hub for AI x DeFi innovation, and its impact is expected to grow significantly in 2025.

Separately, @danielesesta has been making waves with his DeFAI thesis through @HeyAnonai.

He announced that HeyAnon is working on:

• Abstraction Layer as interface to Defi
• DeFi Agent for autonomous transaction execution
• Research & Communication Agent for fetching, filtering, and interpreting relevant data

The market responded enthusiastically, with $ANON token surging from $10M to $130M MC. Daniele seems to be bringing back the excitement of TIME Wonderland, but this time with a stronger foundation and clearer vision (hopefully)

Besides these two ecosystem, there are many teams building out their AI-powered dApps. I’ll share more in the future once major ecosystems are formed around them

Final Thoughts

DeFAI is transforming DeFi by making it smarter, simpler, and more accessible.

With abstraction layers simplifying user interactions, autonomous trading agents managing portfolios, and AI-powered dApps optimizing use cases, we’re seeing the dawn of a new era.

Instead of Defi Summer 2020, it’s gonna be DeFAI Summer 2025

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