DeFAI: A New Chapter of AI-Driven Decentralized Finance

Decentralized Finance (DeFi) has long been seen as the key to driving the mass adoption of cryptocurrency, yet its popularity is far below expectations. Recent data shows that approximately 562 million people globally own cryptocurrency, accounting for 6.9% of the total population. However, the actual usage rate of DeFi is only about 1.4% of cryptocurrency holders.

Nevertheless, DeFi has shown significant growth in trading volume. Currently, the trading volume of decentralized exchanges (DEX) accounts for 16.7% of centralized exchanges (CEX), reaching an all-time high. This phenomenon reflects that the DeFi market is still dominated by well-capitalized older users, with insufficient attraction for new users.

The main reason why DeFi struggles to attract new users is its high knowledge threshold and poor user experience. Even the most basic token exchange operation requires users to understand how to transfer tokens onto the blockchain, reserve sufficient gas fees, and grasp concepts such as slippage and authorization. This series of complex steps is far less convenient and efficient than the one-click trading available on centralized exchanges.

In the face of this dilemma, the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) has brought new opportunities to DeFi, giving rise to the innovative concept of DeFAI (DeFi + AI). DeFAI aims to reduce the complexity of DeFi through AI technology, expand its application scenarios, and enable more users to easily and safely use blockchain financial services.

The core value of DeFAI is mainly reflected in three aspects:

1. Lowering the operational threshold: Users can complete complex DeFi operations through natural language commands without the need to manually switch between various interfaces.

2. Automated Strategies: AI can replace professional traders to execute arbitrage and investment strategies, and even automatically adjust risk parameters, allowing ordinary investors to use advanced quantitative tools.

3. Data Integration and Analysis: AI can simultaneously monitor multidimensional information such as social media trends, influencer comments, on-chain transaction data, and price movements, and automatically execute trades when specific conditions are met.

Currently, the DeFAI project is mainly divided into three categories:

1. AI Abstraction Layer: Simplifies complex DeFi operations into intuitive natural language instructions. Representative projects include Griffain from the Solana ecosystem, which supports natural language trading and NFT minting; the cross-chain trading platform Grift, which integrates over 100 public chains and more than 200 DeFi protocols; and Buzz, the champion project of the Solana AI hackathon, which provides detailed portfolio information.

2. Automated Trading Agents: Automatically execute complex trading strategies with user authorization. For instance, Almanak focuses on institutional-grade quantitative trading and security; Cod3x offers a no-code strategy development environment, allowing users to design their own AI trading agents.

3. Market Analysis Agents: Integrate and analyze a large amount of on-chain data and social media information to provide users with market insights. For example, AIXBT tracks the social interactions of over 400 opinion leaders, monitoring topic popularity and community sentiment in real-time; Kwant conducts technical analysis based on candlestick charts to provide users with investment advice.

With the continuous breakthroughs of AI in dialogue interfaces, strategy automation, and data integration, DeFAI is paving a new path for Decentralized Finance. From simple natural language trading to advanced automated arbitrage, and to multi-agent collaborative ecosystems, DeFAI is expected to make these functionalities more mature and user-friendly.

In the future, DeFAI may become a catalyst for the next round of "DeFi summer," allowing more users to enjoy the potential benefits of Decentralized Finance with a lower threshold. At the same time, professional investors can implement more flexible and secure trading strategies. As blockchain and AI technologies deeply integrate, the wave of DeFAI is gradually expanding, which is worth our continuous attention and anticipation.