DeFAI is the new DeFi! From grandma to ChatGPT conversational trading

DeFi is hindered by wallet setup, Gas fee management, and cross-chain complexity, making adoption difficult with high entry barriers. DeFAI (DeFi + AI) is changing all that by leveraging three main areas: AI abstraction layers, autonomous trading agents, and AI-driven dApps, making DeFi as simple as chatting with ChatGPT.

DeFi Complexity Becomes a Deadly Bottleneck

DeFi has always been the cornerstone of Web3, empowering us with instant cross-border remittances, on-chain asset investments, and trustless lending. It solves real-world problems, providing financial services to the unbanked, removing intermediaries, and operating 24/7, creating a truly global financial system.

But the obvious problem is: DeFi is just too complex. Wallet setup, private key management, Gas optimization, cross-chain bridging, smart contract risk detection—these are insurmountable technical barriers for ordinary users. Even native crypto users often feel overwhelmed when faced with dozens of blockchains, hundreds of protocols, and thousands of tokens.

This complexity directly limits DeFi’s user base and capital scale. When the barrier to entry is so high that it takes weeks to learn the basics, most potential users give up. DeFi needs a thorough user experience revolution, and DeFAI is precisely the answer.

AI Abstraction Layer: Operate DeFi with Natural Language

The abstraction layer aims to hide DeFi’s complexity behind an intuitive interface, allowing users to interact with DeFi protocols using natural language commands instead of clunky dashboards. Before AI, intent-based architectures like CoWSwap and Symm simplified trade execution but didn’t solve the core issue: DeFi still feels intimidating.

Now, AI solutions are bridging this gap. Griffain was the first to launch tokens, enabling users to perform a wide range of operations from basic to complex, such as automated dollar-cost averaging (DCA), issuing meme coins, and airdropping based on specific conditions. Orbit/Grift focus on cross-chain functionality, integrating over 117 chains and 200 protocols, making it the most comprehensive platform. Neur positions itself as a Solana auxiliary platform, designed specifically for the Solana ecosystem and driven by Solana agent kits.

What these platforms share is transforming complex DeFi operations into simple conversations. Want to cross-chain transfer? Tell the AI, “Transfer my USDT from Ethereum to Solana.” Want to optimize yields? Ask the AI, “Find me the highest stablecoin yield right now.” This interaction lowers the barrier to DeFi use to the level of ordinary internet users.

Autonomous Trading Agents: From Robots to Learning Partners

Instead of spending hours mining for excess returns and manually executing trades, why not let trading agents do the work? Autonomous trading agents elevate traditional trading bots to a new level, becoming dynamic partners capable of adapting to environments, learning continuously, and making smarter decisions over time.

The Fundamental Difference Between Agents and Robots

Environmental Perception: Extracting information from unstructured and constantly changing environments, rather than relying on static data

Reasoning Ability: Performing deep reasoning on data to achieve goals, rather than executing preset instructions

Pattern Learning: Discovering regularities and learning to utilize them over time, rather than repeating fixed actions

Innovative Behavior: Executing behaviors that their owners never explicitly programmed, demonstrating true autonomy

This field is developing rapidly. It started with entertainment-oriented meme coin gambling and has now shifted to practical, profit-oriented tools. The key challenge remains: how to verify that an “agent” isn’t a bot or a human behind the scenes manipulating it? This is where decentralized AI (DeAI) infrastructure plays a crucial role.

Trusted execution environments (TEEs) and other key infrastructure ensure agents operate securely and tamper-proof. Phala Network’s TEE provides secure enclaves for confidential data processing, with experiments like Unruggable ICO demonstrating how agents can maintain data integrity during task execution. Innovations like zkML (zero-knowledge machine learning) or opML offer verifiable reasoning and computation, while Hyperbolic Labs’ “sampling proofs” combine game theory and sampling to ensure computational accuracy in decentralized environments.

As autonomous agents begin managing billions of TVL, users need to understand how these agents manage risk, verify their operational frameworks, and ensure funds aren’t wasted on unknown tokens like in gambling. Almanak offers institutional-grade quantitative AI agents, using TEE to ensure strategy privacy and non-custodial wallets for precise permission delegation. Cod3x provides no-code creation tools, allowing users to create agents by specifying trading strategies, personalities, or even tweet styles.

Mode Network Leads the AI-Driven DeFi Ecosystem

AI-powered decentralized applications are a promising but still nascent branch of DeFAI. These feature-rich dApps integrate AI or AI agents to enhance functionality, automation, and user experience. Mode Network, as a Layer 2 platform built specifically for AI x DeFi, brings together multiple teams dedicated to developing cutting-edge applications.

ARMA, developed by Gizatech, is an autonomous stablecoin mining platform customizable to user preferences. Modius, driven by Autonolas, is an autonomous agent that farms Balancer LP. Amplifi’s lending agents and Ironclad Finance integrate to automatically swap assets and maximize yields through auto-rebalancing. The core of the ecosystem is the Mode native token, which holders can stake to receive airdrops of AI agents, project whitelist access, and ecosystem benefits.

Additionally, HeyAnon announced the development of an abstraction layer as a DeFi interface, for autonomous trading execution via DeFi agents, and for research and communication agents to filter and interpret data. The market response has been enthusiastic, with the value of anonymous tokens soaring from $10 million to $130 million.