AI agents are, at present, the only meta that seems to matter. They’ve been breathing fresh degeneracy into the crypto markets like nothing we have seen until this point in the cycle and stealing insane amounts of mindshare in the process.
Meanwhile, the fools who faded are forced to FUD away from the sidelines while the rest of us sift through the trenches to try and catch the next 100x mooner.
The open-sourced nature of this narrative means that things are moving at a pace that no single humanoid can possibly keep up with. This further proves the utility of these ever-awake, ever-watching robots — who are already outcompeting us mortals in every aspect of the crypto game.
It seems like very soon we simple homo sapiens will be forced into capitulation by our new AI overlords as we watch ourselves be replaced in pretty much every facet of life.
It is, however, not all bad news. At least not for us degens.
Within this agent meta will spring forth many sub-metas that we can attempt to gamble our way to freedom before the inevitable replacement occurs.
Better strap in and read on if you wish to stand a chance.
The current agentic landscape
In order for us to really understand where we are heading, we should probably understand where we started from and where we are at present.
If, for whatever reason, you logged off for an early Christmas break (NGMI) and have no clue what this whole AI agent craze is about, then I suggest you begin with our Beginner’s Guide to AI Agents article.
As the rest of us who are terminally online probably know, this AI madness began with the implementation of Large Language Model (LLM) style agents who were let loose on the X feed to talk shit and argue with normies in the comment section.
This first round of AI agents weren’t too dissimilar to the annoying chatbots that have plagued Twitter since the beginning of time, although they’re certainly better articulated and less likely to shill garbage rug tokens.
Many are simply memes and were never meant to be anything more. We are in a meme super-cycle after all, remember?
These conversational agents can be thought of as the first iteration of a technology that is evolving into something so much more as time goes on.
As can be seen in the image below, this is only level 1.
Now, obviously, there is much more out there in the agent space to sling bets on than just chatbots, and we have seen infrastructure plays in the form of frameworks and launchpads do exceptionally well.
So, what do we need to take this to the next level?
The next narrative within the narrative will undoubtedly be agents that can actually do things for users to make our lives easier. The more complex and needed the task done by a particular agent is, the more valuable it will become.
In the image above, this will launch us straight into level 3.
When thinking about complex and necessary areas within the cryptosphere, there is one sector that seems to stand out.
Goes without saying — DeFi.
Afterall, DeFi is the narrative that resonated with a wider audience, so it makes perfect sense that combining this with the new AI agent meta will be an absolute banger.
Prepare yourself for DeFi tasks to become so easy and automated that you will be able to onboard your grandma for exit liquidity and get your hands on that inheritance money years in advance.
What is DeFAI?
To state the obvious, DeFAI is just the combination of DeFi with artificial intelligence. But what exactly is encapsulated within decentralized finance?
DeFi is more than just lending, borrowing, and yield farming.
Instead, it pretty much covers any task that needs doing on a blockchain — think of sending/receiving funds, making swaps, managing wallets and portfolios, perps trading, and on/off ramping. The list goes on and on.
Basically, most on-chain interactions, at their very core, are DeFi.
The problem with the on-chain world is that for the average normie on the street who struggles to make a bank transfer, all this stuff is just too damn complicated.
This, however, is all about to change.
An army of AI agents will soon be just a single click away from making the most complex of DeFi tasks seem redactedly simple for even the biggest of NPCs.
Services within DeFAI
As always the lowest hanging, most important fruit will probably get picked first and we are already starting to see protocols working hard on exactly these areas.
A big one that comes to mind is abstraction.
The ability to abstract away most of the complicated processes involved in navigating the DeFi space will bring huge benefits to users and help onboard those who would otherwise fade it.
Much of this abstraction will look similar to the ChatGPT and Perplexity style LLM interfaces that we are already familiar with. The only difference will be that instead of asking general knowledge-type questions, you will be able to ask it to perform complex DeFi tasks on your behalf.
The next area for DeFAI to have a huge impact on is autonomous trading strategies.
Automated trading is not exactly new; these bots have existed for some time now. The big difference here is that an AI agent will be able to make trades on their own based on market data and trends that they discover while learning to improve over time.
There are already a number of agents on the market that are trading against us in the trenches and one could expect the win rates of these robotic traders to improve significantly with time.
Then we have the implementation of AI into application front-ends.
Decentralized applications within the DeFi sector will also likely start rolling out AI-powered front-end interfaces to assist users with their tasks in order to keep up with this changing meta.
Think of a typical website chat assistant, but instead of having to struggle to get your needs across to some dumbass robot, you will be able to connect with your dApp of choice and use an intelligent artificial being to do your bidding for you.
Why is DeFAI better than DeFi?
Besides the fact that AI will significantly reduce the barrier of entry for the average DeFi user and make navigating the world of crypto more accessible to all, there are some other advantages worth noting.
Juicy profits
Let’s face it, we are all here for the gains. Only those who are still holding onto their ETH bags can truly claim to be in it for the tech at this stage.
By utilizing AI to help out with complex DeFi tasks, there is an increased chance that an under-educated user can become profitable in this complicated space. More profits for the users mean more liquidity all-round and a faster-growing crypto ecosystem.
A win-win for all involved!
Revenue
As these DeFAI protocols improve at helping users make more money, they themselves will begin to accrue large amounts of revenue.
We are already seeing various trading bots and DeFi applications printing cash at astonishing rates.
It is fair to imagine that some of this revenue will likely be used to benefit the token holders in the form of buy-backs, yield opportunities, and potential airdrops with partnered platforms.
One thing is for sure: once these DeFAI protocols begin to print dollars, there will be some interesting tokenomic plays that will bubble up to the surface.
User experience
We always talk about user experience as a major issue in crypto, but there is no sector with a worse UX than DeFi.
It is unnecessarily technical and complicated, and the gigabrain devs who make it simply refuse to accept that the vast majority of people cannot comprehend such stuff, nor can they ever be bothered to figure it out.
With DeFAI, this UX issue is gone altogether. All you need to know is how the AI agent itself works. After that, it will handle all the tedious little tasks for you, while you sit back with a mojito on the beach, reaping the rewards.
What are the concerns?
Anyone who has dabbled in the DeFi realm for long enough is likely haunted by some form of hack that has sent their bags to zero at a rapid pace.
These DeFAI protocols will most likely share the same risks.
Whether the hacks will be in the form of draining funds from a DeFAI project or overriding the AI itself to perform nefarious tasks, it will almost certainly happen at some stage.
Luckily for the user, there are some ways of mitigating these risks, and we are already seeing projects focus on this.
Open-sourcing code means that coding nerds can scan through the backends of these DeFAI projects and hopefully identify any potential attack vectors before they are exploited.
Smart developers will also be able to improve upon the existing code bases to make them more secure.
Another way of managing the risks involved comes in the form of infrastructure used to build these DeFAI projects.
If you haven’t heard of Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) then I once again suggest jumping back to the Beginner’s Guide and checking out the section on them.
TLDR is that by using a TEE for agents to operate within, tasks can be completed with minimal interference from the outside world. This means that data integrity and cryptographic proof of tasks can be maintained to the highest standard.
As with any new tech, there are always risks involved, so it’s worth remembering we are still in the early innings and therefore it is very important to be doing your own research before aping.
Top DeFAI projects
Now that you are armed with the knowledge, let’s take a look at some of the projects that are leading the way in the DeFAI space.
Griffain
Griffain is your do-it-all all AI agent play on Solana. Built by Tony Plasencia, the same guy who built blinkdotfun, Griffain has run to an all-time high of over $500 million in a very short timeframe.
On the Griffain platform users can perform a variety of different DeFi related actions like basic swaps, launching tokens of their own, airdropping tokens, copy-trading, and setting limit orders to buy and sell tokens at different levels.
All the tasks performed by Griffain are done via natural language in the same way you would use ChatGPT.
Griffain aims to be a kind of “app store” for Solana based on-chain actions, so it’s well worth having it on your radar, if it isn’t already.
Oh yeah, and Grant chatted with Tony not so long ago, check out the full pod below.
Orbit
Orbit and its token GRIFT is the next project to be watched and is quickly becoming a leading AI agent DeFi abstraction layer.
Having been built by the team at SphereOne, it can be said that some of the best brains in the decentralized AI space are behind this one.
Where Orbit really shines is in its cross-chain ability. Currently serving over 100 different chains and 175 different protocols, it is smashing its competition in the form of variety.
Swaps, bridging, staking, lending, borrowing, and portfolio management can be taken care of by the Orbit agent making it an impressive DeFi companion that is potentially pretty undervalued at its current market cap.
HeyAnonAI
Those who were around in the trenches last cycle may remember Spell and Wonderland — both billion-dollar protocols created by Daniele Sesta.
Well, it turns out Dani’s back, but this time with DeFAI in mind with the creation of HeyAnonAI.
HeyAnon, with its token ANON, brings its own DeFi abstraction layer that can do everything from trading on your behalf to keeping you up to date with the latest happenings in crypto news.
Neur
Built on the SendAI Solana agent kit, Neur calls itself the intelligent co-pilot for the Solana ecosystem.
With integrations with the likes of Pump.fun, Jupiter, Magic Eden, and Dex Screener, Neur can be used to launch tokens, keep up with the latest news, and perform a number of DeFi-related tasks within a natural language command window.
Neur’s fully open-sourced GitHub has attracted some decent attention from builders and the protocol itself was added to the Binance Alpha list.
Another one to keep a close eye on.
Cod3x
Cod3x has been in the game for a while now and has some serious dev talent backing.
The Cod3x platform enables users to build specialized trading agents in a no-code fashion. This is a big deal as no-code platforms have the potential to be the Wordpress of the AI agent world and drive serious amounts of value.
With a vast library of API and datasets available, you will soon be able to build your own super-smart AI agent trading weapon without any technical knowledge at all.
Their flagship agent Big Tony has been gaining some serious traction of late.
Check out the inner workings of the platform and Big Tony in the video below.
Conclusion
The AI agent narrative is leading the charge into the new year, and frankly, there ain’t much out there in the market at the minute that can compete with it.
It seems pretty inevitable that AI will touch most of the other crypto narratives at some stage, and it just so happens that DeFi looks to be first in line.
With platforms like CoinGecko having launched a new DeFAI category that only contains 8 projects so far, it's certainly fair to say we are early AF to this one.
DeFAI, as a narrative, is also perfectly positioned to get attention from investors and mid-curvooors who may think the AI agents and memes are vapourware. The utility of this is much more evident.
As with any early narrative, it will likely take some time for the winners to be fully established while the vaporware shitters are slowly uncovered. Take care out there in those trenches!
In saying that, this recent dip might just be the gift we have all been waiting for, in order to load up on the next big runners in the future of decentralized finance.
Higher.
