Author: TechFlow
The AI theme continues to dominate the market, with $a16z, $zerebro, and $griffain all joining Binance contracts, the framework narrative $arc and $Swarms have been rising steadily, with over 10-fold gains in a week, and various AI Agents are emerging one after another. In short, the current AI theme can be described as - completely crazy.
In addition to the soaring prices of various tokens, the practicality of AI is also constantly evolving. Many AI projects have started to target the DeFi sector, allowing AI to execute complex DeFi operations, and the concept of DeFAI is frequently mentioned.
As Twitter user 0x Jeff mentioned in the new article "DeFAI is the New DeFi": "DeFAI is becoming the future of DeFi." The DeFAI trend has emerged, so what is DeFAI all about? And which DeFAI concept projects are worth paying attention to?
TechFlow Note: The AI Agent market has strong timeliness, token prices fluctuate violently, and there is a high degree of risk. Investors should fully assess the risks and participate cautiously. This article is only based on market hotspots to share information, and the author and platform do not guarantee the completeness and accuracy of the content, and this article does not provide any investment advice.
What is DeFAI?
Although DeFi has already become one of the pillars of the crypto world, when it comes to specific operations, DeFi still has a certain threshold for ordinary people to enter.
To experience the convenience brought by DeFi, an ordinary user needs to learn: find the right project platform, learn to set up various wallets, distinguish between different L1+L2, prevent phishing scams, etc. Relatively speaking, DeFi operations are still too complex.
The emergence of DeFAI has changed this situation to a certain extent.
By definition, DeFAI is "AI+DeFi", using AI to simplify the complex DeFi operation threshold, allowing more people to participate in DeFi in a simpler way, and using DeFi services to manage assets as conveniently as chatting with GPT.
DeFAI Concept, What Projects Are There?
The DeFAI concept is simple and easy to understand, and the first batch of DeFAI concept projects have also begun to emerge. They are currently mainly concentrated in three areas:
Abstraction layer
Autonomous trading AI agents
AI-driven dApps
Abstraction Layer - Simplifying Interaction Operations
The abstraction layer essentially covers a user-friendly interaction interface on top of the complex DeFi operations. It's like driving a car, the user doesn't need to understand the working principle of the engine, as long as they know how to drive.
Before DeFAI, DeFi had already made some attempts at a simple abstraction layer, such as Uniswap using the abstract cross-chain intent standard ERC-7683 to optimize the cross-chain path. But these solutions still require users to have a certain understanding of DeFi knowledge.
The abstraction layer in the DeFAI era has gone a step further, allowing users to express their investment intentions directly in natural language. For example, directly telling the AI Agent: "I want to do a weekly $100 DCA into ETH", and the system will automatically handle all the complex on-chain operations.
The abstraction layer products currently receiving the most attention in the market are Griffain, Orbit, and Neur. Their common point is that they all try to allow users to complete DeFi operations through chatting, but their focus is different. Griffain is a generalist, Orbit focuses on cross-chain, and Neur is deeply cultivating the Solana ecosystem.
Griffain
Token Contract Address: KENJSUYLASHUMfHyy5o4Hp2FdNqZg1AsUPhfH2kYvEP
Griffain (@griffaindotcom) is an early-issued AI Agent in the DeFAI sector.
Griffain is divided into two main categories: personal agents and specialized agents. Personal agents are AI Agents created and controlled by users themselves, and users can customize instructions and continuously update the agent's memory. These agents can not only execute on-chain operations, but also perform information retrieval, and plan to support task delegation to other specialized agents in the future.
The specialized agents, on the other hand, are professional AI agents built by Griffain, and currently include Baxus, Blink, Onchain, Holiday, Sniper, and Flipper, each with specific professional functions.
Griffain currently uses an invitation system, and users need to hold an early access pass or Griffain's Saga Genesis token to obtain access rights, after which they can create their own AI agents and access Griffain's specialized agent network.
Orbit
Token Contract Address: GekTNfm84QfyP2GdAHZ5AgACBRd69aNmgA5FDhZupump
Orbit (@orbitcryptoai) is an AI-driven DeFi assistant platform, with the core goal of simplifying user interaction with DeFi. Orbit has currently integrated with over 100 blockchain networks and more than 175 protocols, using AI technology to improve the efficiency of cross-chain operations. The platform's functions cover cross-chain betting and asset bridging, staking and yield farming strategy optimization, lending protocol access, and comprehensive investment portfolio management tools, allowing users to operate on 116 chains.
Neur
Token Contract Address: 3N2ETvNpPNAxhcaXgkhKoY1yDnQfs41Wnxsx5qNJpump
Neur (@neur_sh) is a smart assistant in the Solana ecosystem, using an open-source full-stack architecture supported by the Solana Agent Kit. The platform provides an intelligent agent system with natural language interaction, and has integrated with major Solana protocols such as Jupiter and Magic Eden. Core functions include smart wallet management, NFT collection analysis, real-time market tracking, and simplifying user interaction with DeFi and NFTs through AI-driven interfaces.
Slate
Slate (@slate_ceo) is a project still in the early stages of the DeFAI field, and its core feature is automation. According to user feedback, Slate's automation capabilities perform well in the execution of complex trading strategies, and this automation capability is implemented by drawing on well-known industry technologies such as Chainlink's automation service concept, providing users with a secure and cost-effective solution.
Slate has not yet issued a token, and is still focusing more on product development.
AI Wayfinder
Wayfinder (@AIWayfinder) is an AI full-chain tool that allows users' autonomous AI Agents to navigate safely and effectively within and between the blockchain ecosystem and applications, while independently transacting their assets through a dedicated Web3 wallet.
Autonomous Trading AI Agents
Unlike traditional trading bots that can only execute pre-programmed routines, the new generation of AI trading agents have much stronger capabilities: they can extract information from complex environments, perform contextual reasoning, learn patterns, and execute operations beyond the original programming...
The AI trading agent field is also transitioning from its early entertainment nature (such as Altcoin betting) to practical profit-making tools. But the key issue is: how to verify that an "agent" is truly AI, and not just an ordinary bot or human-operated.
To solve this problem, the industry has introduced two important infrastructures:
Trusted Execution Environment (TEE): Ensures that the agent runs in a secure, tamper-proof environment
Transparent Execution Verification Framework: Ensures computational trust through technologies like zero-knowledge proofs
As autonomous agents are about to manage large amounts of funds, these verification mechanisms become increasingly important. Users need to clearly understand how the agents manage risks and ensure fund security.
Although this field is still in its early stages, multiple projects are exploring these key technologies:
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 generate profits. The platform's core advantage lies in its unique simulator, which combines agent-based modeling and blockchain-driven Monte Carlo simulation to provide a high-precision predictive environment for financial strategies.
The platform uses the simulator for strategy testing and optimization, and the execution engine is responsible for strategy deployment and monitoring. Almanak incentivizes ecosystem participants through tokens, with a particular focus on rewarding strategy contributors.
Cod 3 x
Cod 3 x (@Cod 3 xOrg) is a DeFAI ecosystem built by the Byte Mason team (developers of Fantom and Sonic Labs). Its core highlight is the provision of no-code building tools, allowing users to easily create trading proxies. Users can set trading strategies, personalized features, and even tweet styles for the proxies.
The platform integrates a rich set of APIs and strategy libraries, and collaborates with Allora Network to leverage its advanced machine learning price prediction model to enhance the effectiveness of trading strategies. This allows users to access any dataset and develop financial strategies within minutes. The platform's flagship proxy, Big Tony, is based on the Allora model for trading mainstream cryptocurrencies, demonstrating the practical application of AI-driven trading.
Axal & Gekko Agent
Token contract address:
0xf7b0dd0B642a6ccc2fc4d8FfE2BfFb0caC8C43C8
Axal (@getaxal) is an innovative AI trading platform, with its signature product Autopilot supporting users in creating customized trading proxies. The project was established in 2023, focusing on the development of AI proxy infrastructure, responsible for proxy source management, competitive auctions, and payment processing. Users can set up auto-rebalancing strategies, yield harvesting conditions, and create custom token portfolios through Autopilot, such as automatically liquidating the portfolio when it drops below a certain price.
Axal recently partnered with Agora Finance to further expand its capabilities in automated trading strategies, from rebalancing to creating custom token indices.
Gekko Agent (@Gekko_Agent) is an AI proxy launched by AXAL through Virtuals.io. Its main function is to share crypto market information and trading-related content, adopting a communication style that mimics 1980s Wall Street traders on social media.
ASYM
Token contract address:
KENJSUYLASHUMfHyy5o4Hp2FdNqZg1AsUPhfH2kYvEP
ASYM Agents (@ASYM 41 b 07) are described as the "cheat code" for memecoin trading, able to analyze large datasets from the blockchain and social media to predict memecoin trends (primarily monitoring and trading tokens on the Pumpfun platform).
The project's core functionality is divided into two parts: a prediction system, where ASYM uses a set of machine learning models to predict short-term price movements of tokens and automatically execute corresponding trading strategies; and social interaction, where the project has set up an interactive bot on the X platform, building on the a16z framework, to engage with users.
Based on the current development status, ASYM's website is updated infrequently, and its main activities on the X platform are the publication of market analyses similar to AIXBT. The project regularly posts progress updates, including the accuracy of its prediction models and development dynamics, through bot accounts.
Project Plutus
Token contract address:
76PsEyML7UV9uiBDWMdG3itRRuupDuRs6nNpjNBpump
Project Plutus (@ProjectPlutus_) is an AI trading proxy project deployed on the Solana blockchain, with its token PPCoin issued through the Pumpfun platform. The project's core goal is to help users maximize returns while freeing them from the tedious chart analysis and complex financial operations.
Project Plutus believes that providing research and analysis alone, like @aixbt_agent, is not enough, and the system also needs to have autonomous trading capabilities. Therefore, the project has designed an integrated system that combines analysis and trading: it can perform market research like aixbt, and execute autonomous trades through a funded wallet, allowing users to invest and withdraw funds (AUM). The system's main functions include automated trading strategy execution, portfolio management optimization, and trade completion based on users' financial goals.
The project is developing more features, such as having the Agent evaluate the code quality of projects' GitHub repositories to expand the analysis dimensions. In terms of token application, users holding more than 5,000,000 PPCoins can unlock more advanced analysis functions, a mechanism similar to the token staking model on the Cookie platform, providing real utility for the token.
AI-Driven DApps
AI-driven DApps represent a promising direction in the DeFAI field. These complete decentralized applications integrate AI or AI Agents to enhance functionality, automation, and user experience. Although this niche is still in its early stages, some ecosystems and projects have already started 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. Several teams have already developed cutting-edge AI-driven applications on Mode:
ARMA (by Giza Tech)
ARMA (@0x ARMAgeddon) is an emerging AI-driven yield optimization project in the Mode Network ecosystem, developed by Giza Tech (@gizatechxyz). The project focuses on the automated management of USDC assets and is a core application in the Mode Network AI Agent App Store. ARMA operates in a self-custodial mode, using smart contracts to ensure user control over their assets. Its core function is to continuously monitor the yield rates of various lending protocols on Mode Network and automatically rebalance funds at the appropriate times.
Modius
Modius is an autonomous agent supported by Autonolas (Olas) @autonolas, used to manage Balancer liquidity pools. It will be launched as a self-sovereign multi-agent system on the Mode Network in 2024. Modius has joined the Mode Network AI agent ecosystem, including ARMA, to drive the development of DeFi automation.
Amplifi Lending Agents
Amplifi Lending Agents, developed by Amplifi.Fi (@Amplifi_Fi), use AI algorithms to analyze market data and automatically adjust investment strategies to provide optimized yield solutions for users. The core functions include smart asset allocation, risk management, and yield rate optimization, helping users achieve better investment returns in the DeFi market through automation. Amplifi Lending Agents also integrate with Ironclad Finance, allowing for automatic asset swapping, lending on Ironclad, and yield maximization through auto-rebalancing.
HeyAnonai
Token contract address:
9McvH6w97oewLmPxqQEoHUAv3u5iYMyQ9AeZZhguYf1T
HeyAnonai (@HeyAnonai) can automatically execute complex cross-chain bridge, token swap, and staking operations, while real-time aggregating and analyzing project data from multiple channels such as Twitter, Discord, and GitHub. Through natural language processing, HeyAnon helps users quickly obtain information on price changes, community sentiment, and development dynamics, improving the efficiency of DeFi investment decisions.
Recently, @danielesesta has gained widespread attention through the DeFAI theory introduced by HeyAnonai (@HeyAnonai). He has announced that HeyAnon is developing the following:
An abstraction layer as a DeFi interface
DeFi proxies for autonomous trade execution
Research and communication proxies for data acquisition, filtering, and interpretation
