Author: Arthur Azizov
Compiled by: Block unicorn
The world is facing a new technological race, and the development of artificial intelligence has become a national priority. The recently launched Stargate project in the United States is a strong proof of this trend.
Although it’s still early in Trump’s presidency, we can already see a tech-centric trend taking shape, with his plans to invest $500 billion in artificial intelligence infrastructure.
At the same time, this technological boom will also reshape another industry: cryptocurrency.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has entered the cryptocurrency space in the form of AI agents, trading bots, automated risk analysis, and more.
The question isn’t whether AI will change cryptocurrencies — because it’s already doing it.
The real question is – what does this mean for cryptocurrencies and blockchain in the long run?
Will the involvement of AI strengthen the sector, or undermine the principles of decentralization that the cryptocurrency community holds dear?
Here are my thoughts.
The State of AI and Cryptocurrency — The Transformation Has Already Begun
As things stand, I don’t think AI’s presence in cryptocurrency has gone very far yet — it’s still in its “infancy,” so to speak.
But it won’t last long—progress is happening fast.
The industry is moving beyond simple trading bots. AI is now being used to drive market making strategies and risk assessment.
We’re even seeing examples of decentralized venture capital driven by AI.
Projects like Moby AI, Griffain AI, and HeyAnonAI are becoming more and more abundant — and while these are only early iterations of AI-based cryptocurrency financial intelligence, they are already outperforming human traders in speed and efficiency.
As AI models grow in complexity and gain greater autonomy, I believe that soon they will no longer just follow market trends—they will shape them.
Future prospects
The coming years will redefine what it means to be involved in cryptocurrency, and AI will be at the heart of this transformation, bringing changes to all sectors.
Autonomous AI trading agents are already optimizing market strategies in real time, with speed and accuracy far exceeding human capabilities.
The more advanced these robots become, the greater the competitive advantage investors and traders gain by using them.
In the DeFi compliance space, AI-driven tools will be key to maintaining security.
Fraud and illegal transactions are always a concern, but AI-driven monitoring systems can analyze activity in blockchain networks and detect suspicious patterns in real time.
This will allow them to flag potential risks before they escalate, making the sector safer.
Meanwhile, AI-integrated DeFi services will simplify lending and borrowing by removing human intermediaries.
AI models can be used to automatically match borrowers and lenders and dynamically adjust interest rates based on market conditions.
All of this can be done without human involvement.
I can also see on-chain AI agents playing an important role in governance.
They can provide real-time market insights, manage portfolios, and even participate in DAO decision-making by enabling more data-driven governance choices.
Beyond financial applications, AI can also address long-standing inefficiencies in blockchain.
For example, one of the main issues with PoW (Proof of Work) networks is high energy consumption.
AI can solve this problem by analyzing and predicting network needs, dynamically adjusting energy consumption to reduce waste and optimize performance.
Additionally, AI can facilitate “sharding,” where blockchain data is distributed across multiple nodes, allowing for parallel processing and faster transaction times.
This can help scale blockchain networks efficiently, a key step for cryptocurrencies to gain wider adoption.
Although AI today is still just a support tool and cannot truly replace humans in making effective decisions, this will not always be the case.
In my opinion, it is entirely possible that AI will evolve into a dominant force that actively shapes the future of DeFi.
Risks — Will AI Undermine Decentralization?
While AI promises to dramatically increase efficiency, it is undeniable that it is not without risk. One of the biggest threats I foresee right now is AI-driven market manipulation.
Imagine a scenario where AI-driven trading firms take control of DeFi, making it harder for retail investors to compete.
We are already seeing this phenomenon in TradFi (traditional finance) as high-frequency trading firms use AI to exploit market inefficiencies.
The same could happen with DeFi, leading to an arms race among AI bots, while human traders remain at a disadvantage and ultimately left behind.
That being said, DeFi has some advantages in this regard. Its high spreads and transaction fees serve as a natural barrier to prevent AI from taking over the dominant position immediately.
Since trading bots in DeFi have to deal with a lot of costs, this creates a chicken and egg situation.
As long as fees and spreads remain high, AI-driven trading cannot scale easily. On the other hand, if trading volumes are low, these costs will remain high.
This could actually prevent AI-driven market manipulation as everyone in DeFi would have to operate on equal terms.
Beyond that, there’s also the issue of AI-generated smart contracts to consider. AI can write complete contracts, but what happens if those contracts contain hidden vulnerabilities?
Hackers can exploit AI-generated code and use adversarial inputs to bypass security audits.
A compromised AI-generated contract could mean millions of dollars in lost crypto assets.
DeFi developers must take this threat very seriously — you should never rely on AI to write code for you.
The future of AI and cryptocurrency
The AI race is not just a competition between nations for dominance — the real battle is between open source AI and closed source AI.
The launch of DeepSeek R1 has been the foundation for a major shift in this regard.
It challenges traditional assumptions about AI development, demonstrating that multi-billion dollar budgets at large tech companies aren’t always necessary to achieve breakthrough innovations.
AI development is no longer centralized, and I think an open source model aligns well with crypto’s values, rather than a more centralized approach.
The idea that AI will take over the cryptocurrency space is no longer a controversial issue. The only question now is how fast it will happen.
