We all know the advantages that DeFi offers: low cost, global reach, decentralization, privacy, and capital efficiency. However, these benefits often come at the cost of complex applications with confusing and difficult-to-follow user experiences. Some of these trade-offs are intentional (and rightly so) to preserve the self-custodial and decentralized nature of DeFi. But things have changed in recent months. AI agents can now handle the complex and tedious workflows that often make DeFi challenging.
The problem we now face is how to integrate AI agents into DeFi workflows to provide a seamless user experience while maintaining decentralization and the non-custodial principles at the core of the DeFi movement. This is the mission de5.ai is built to accomplish.
What is de5.ai?
de5.ai is a simple-to-use, modular platform of interconnected AI agents designed to automate DeFi workflows. Purpose-built for non-technical users, it requires no coding knowledge. Instead, it features a drag-and-drop UI paired with conversational agents to guide users in creating DeFi automations.
Under the hood a series of specialized AI agents work in tandem to complete the tasks. Each agent is finely tuned to perform a specific DeFi subtask efficiently. These agents are then stitched together into customizable flows. For example, a swapping agent can identify the best liquidity at the lowest cost across options, while a market-watch agent can trigger orders based on price movements. Think of these agents as microservices you can plug into your workflow wherever they’re needed.
But what can it do?
With de5.ai, you can automate small, market-based trades, such as limit orders (e.g., selling ETH if the price exceeds $5,000). You can also use it to optimize yields by automatically moving funds between different DEX liquidity pools or to implement algorithmic strategies like dollar-cost averaging when buying a token.
Moreover, de5.ai enables you to design fairly complex strategies with multiple criteria, weaving them into a single automated workflow. Here’s an example of setting up a social media-based trading strategy:
Security first
Before AI agents became popular, automated trading or DeFi execution required transferring funds to a vault or vault-like smart contract, introducing smart contract risk. Even today, most AI agent-led transaction execution involves either handing over your private keys to the agent, moving funds to an agent-controlled wallet, or manually signing each transaction — which results in a clunky user experience.
de5.ai takes a unique approach to address this, ensuring your funds never leave your wallet. We use a combination of session keys and smart accounts, granting agents access only to the funds needed for a specific transaction — and only when it’s being executed. Moreover, funds are never pooled with other users or stored in a smart contract, reducing the attack surface and potential impact.
Stay tuned for more details in our upcoming security blog!
Built by DeFi veterans with the community
Our founding team brings over 40 years of combined experience, having worked in DeFi across ecosystems like Ethereum (and its L2s), Solana, Bitcoin, Polygon, BNB, and more. We’ve witnessed many cycles — from the highs of the DeFi Summer to the lows of the Terra collapse and FTX disaster. These experiences have taught us the value of building solutions for real problems alongside the community that cares most about them — in our case, native DeFi users.
Too many projects today prioritize fundraising and investor returns over user satisfaction and participation. We want to return to old-school DeFi, where users had the biggest say and were rewarded for contributing to projects they loved. Indeed, we all started as those users! Look out for our upcoming tokenomics blog, where we’ll dive deeper into how we plan to achieve this.
Next steps and getting involved
We have a grand vision, but like Rome, de5.ai won’t be built in a day or even a month. We’ll launch with a few pre-built automation workflows and gradually expand, adding more capabilities with specialized AI agents and new ways to combine them into your workflows.
Our approach is to ship quickly and incrementally, letting our users shape nearly everything we do. We’re putting that into practice right now. Visit our poll on [Snapshot] to vote for the pre-built automation most useful to you, so we can prioritize it for release. While you’re at it, sign up for early access and follow our socials below for the latest updates!
For major updates and announcements, please follow us on:
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