AgentFi to XenoFi: A New Paradigm for Stablecoin Yields

Against the backdrop of increasingly rich stablecoin yield strategies, but limited user focus and execution efficiency, AgentFi, as the next paradigm of "AI + DeFi" integration, offers DeFi users an intelligent agent solution that requires no monitoring and automatically optimizes.

1. Classification and Comparison of DeFAI and AgentFi

Although DeFAI and AgentFi are both in the "AI + DeFi" crossover field, their technological essence, product forms, and paradigm missions are entirely different. AgentFi differs from traditional DeFi or generalized DeFAI projects, with its core feature being: the AI Agent is the main executor and decision carrier, fully automated decision-making and closed-loop execution, rather than simply using AI as a decision support tool for data analysis and strategy enhancement.

DeFAI Categories: Tools that use AI to assist or enhance DeFi-related functions, such as strategy optimization, data analysis, investment advice, etc., with AI models assisting human decision-making. These financial automation products rely on explicit user instructions and strategies, executing a process of "from instruction to operation."

AgentFi Major Category: Build a financial system where on-chain AI agents serve as the primary executors. Agents can autonomously reason, make decisions, and complete transactions or governance actions, with users authorizing agents to act on their behalf. The agent actively makes decisions and executes actions. Using the "from intention to outcome" paradigm, users only need to express their goals, and the system can formulate and execute strategies.

Currently, the market is flooded with a large number of Agent launch platforms or trading markets. Compared to AI Meme tokens that are purely speculative with no practical use, the AgentFi projects that truly focus on the Crypto Native DeFi world are few and far between. Through extensive online research and screening, we have classified and rated the current AgentFi projects in the market after eliminating those that are too early or clearly scams:

Stablecoin Yield Optimization:

• ARMA (Giza): ★★★★★
• Fluidity Money: ★★★★☆
• Banker Joe: ★★★☆☆

Strategy Portfolio/Liquidity Mining:

• Steamboat Protocol: ★★★★☆
• Gnosis Safe AI: ★★★★☆
• Opolis: ★★★☆☆

On-chain transaction execution type:

• Pragma: ★★★★☆
• Brainy: ★★★★☆
• Cyberconnect: ★★★☆☆

The above 9 AgentFi projects are all in the initial stage of having a closed-loop on-chain execution, clear scenarios, and basic preliminary products. However, to be honest, the AgentFi sector is still too early, and the user experience of most products is difficult to describe. Compared to mature DeFi protocols, the product gap remains significant. We look forward to the future of the AgentFi sector moving beyond the meme token speculation phase and entering a true PMF stage.

2. Optimization of Stablecoin Earnings in AgentFi

The track of stablecoin yield optimization is not new in the DeFi world. From the earliest Yearn Finance (YFI) automated yield aggregator and Idle Finance's automated asset rebalancing and strategy composition platform, to Gauntlet, a professional DeFi risk modeling and protocol-level yield optimization platform aimed at institutions, all belong to relatively representative automated yield optimization projects before AgentFi.

AgentFi has initially realized the vision of the mutual integration of Crypto and AI: that is, AI empowers users to better participate in the native DeFi world of Crypto through on-chain information collection and decision-making capabilities, while utilizing the immutability of blockchain to retain transaction details in on-chain logs, ensuring that logic is verifiable and behavior is traceable. As a continuation of the stablecoin yield article, we focus on the product usability aspect of the AgentFi track, which is the only one to receive a five-star rating and the only asset in the "stablecoin yield optimization" category------ARMA.

3. Giza Project Vision and Paradigm Concept

Giza is a blockchain infrastructure project focused on building "Verifiable AI Agents" and is dedicated to promoting the emerging paradigm of Agent-native Finance. As one of the few project teams in the ZKML track, Giza differs from teams like Modulus Labs or EZKL, which lean more toward theoretical research or infrastructure development, by placing greater emphasis on engineering and practicality. It is the first project in the ZKML track to achieve a complete closed loop of "on-chain intelligent agents + verifiable execution + AI scheduling."

Giza has proposed a groundbreaking concept - Xenocognitive Finance, which introduces AI agents as a new interface in decentralized finance to address the cognitive bottlenecks of human participants and reconstruct market intelligence and structure. The agents are not passive tools but "cognitive representatives" with independent reasoning capabilities and on-chain execution permissions, enhancing the information processing capacity of the entire market through a distributed agent network, allowing market intelligence to scale with participant size rather than collapse, and providing credible results through zero-knowledge proofs (ZK). In short, Xenocognitive Finance is a new paradigm that extends human cognitive abilities through autonomous intelligent agents without sacrificing sovereignty in a non-custodial model, achieving "cognitive offload" without the need to constantly monitor the market, automatically switch protocols, and efficiently participate in decentralized finance.

The architecture of the Giza Protocol includes the following three layers:

• Semantic Abstraction Layer: Bridging the semantic gap between AI and blockchain, helping AI understand the blockchain world.
• Decentralized Execution Layer: Provides a scalable, secure, and censorship-resistant agent execution environment.
• Agent Authorization Layer: Ensures that the agent operates in a non-custodial, secure, and controllable manner.

The Giza agent execution process is completed through the collaboration of three core modules and is divided into four key steps:

1. Request Processing (Semantic Abstraction Layer): The AI agent initiates an operation request via the MCP protocol (e.g., "Deposit USDC into AAVE"), the system parses the natural language strategy into standardized on-chain operation instructions, while verifying the format, semantics, and permission boundaries to ensure the request is legal and executable;

2. Protocol Interaction (Decentralized Execution Layer): Execution nodes call DeFi protocols (such as lending and exchanging) based on instructions to complete actual operations. The system will dynamically optimize the transaction path, considering gas costs, slippage tolerance, and protocol liquidity. After the task is executed, results and task proofs are generated for subsequent verification.

3. Execution Verification (Authorization Layer + Execution Layer): The system checks whether the operation complies with the Session Key authorization scope set by the user (protocol type, amount, time). Multiple Attester nodes independently verify the operation, and the Aggregator collects signatures to reach a consensus, ensuring that the results are secure and trustworthy.

4. Result Feedback (Semantic Abstraction Level): The execution result is transformed into structured semantic information (such as changes in earnings, asset distribution), which is returned to the AI agent system for subsequent strategy adjustment and automatic iterative decision-making.

In July 2023, Giza announced the completion of a $3 million Pre-Seed funding round, led by CoinFund, with participation from StarkWare, TA Ventures, and Arrington Capital (founded by TechCrunch's founder). Angel investors include Rand Hindi and Julien Bouteloup. In May 2025, Giza completed a $2.2 million seed funding round, led by Base Ecosystem Fund, with follow-on investments from CoinFund, Arrington Capital, Re7 Capital, and Contango Digital Assets. These two funding rounds demonstrate the capital market's ongoing optimism regarding Giza's vision in the "AI + DeFi" space.

4. Representative Product ARMA: Stablecoin Yield Optimization Agent

ARMA (Autonomous Revenue Management Agent) is a stablecoin yield optimization smart agent launched by Giza, aimed at maximizing automated yield across protocols for users. It is currently deployed on the Base network and plans to expand to more Layer 2 ecosystems, supporting mainstream lending protocols such as AAVE, Morpho, Compound, and Moonwell.

( 4.1 Overview of ARMA Working Mechanism

• Intelligent Strategy Scheduling: Real-time analysis of stablecoin yields (APR), transaction costs, and rebalancing timing across various protocols, automatically executing optimal rebalancing operations.
• APR Optimization System: Through a comprehensive optimization of interest rate comparison, cost assessment, and rebalancing logic, it ensures that each operation brings net gains; the actual annualized return can reach up to 2 times that of traditional static holdings.
• Automatic compound interest mechanism: Automatically receive and reinvest incentive tokens, converting rewards into original stablecoin; the compounding frequency is dynamically optimized based on position size and transaction costs to enhance efficiency.
• Smart Coin Exchange Logic: Supports dual currency operations with USDC and USDT, and automatically exchanges coins efficiently through integrated DEX when necessary, ensuring that users can always withdraw assets in the original currency, enhancing flexibility and experience.

![AgentFi to XenoFi, a new paradigm for stablecoin yields])https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-de27123568f85c35bb7e8af287749188.webp###

( Overview of 4.2 ARMA Component Module and Security Architecture

The Giza Agent architecture consists of six major modules: Smart Accounts, Session Keys, Agent Core, Protocol Integration, Risk Module, and Accounting Module, which collaboratively build a secure, efficient, intelligent, and verifiable on-chain automation execution system.

At the same time, ARMA ensures the safety of user funds and operations through a three-layer protection mechanism:

1. Smart Account Security: Based on self-custody smart accounts, users always maintain control over their assets, and Giza cannot access the private keys; the contract has been audited and supports flexible permission management.
2. Access control mechanism: Fine-tune proxy permissions through Session Key, limited to specific protocols, operation types, and validity periods, to avoid the risk of full authorization.
3. Risk Management System: Only connect to carefully selected protocols, focusing on stable return scenarios; the entire trading process is traceable, ensuring operational transparency and auditability, enhancing the overall security of the system.

![AgentFi to XenoFi, a new paradigm of stablecoin earnings])https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-edf4d625712f07f4ac7cd0551bea721e.webp###

( 4.3 ARMA Charging Mechanism and Revenue Management

The cost and revenue mechanism of ARMA is centered on user-friendliness, transparency, and efficiency, covering three main aspects:

• Fee Structure: Charged based on earnings, transparent and verifiable, only a 10% success fee is charged on the actual earnings generated. This fee is settled in one lump sum when the user withdraws, and the entire fee calculation process can be viewed in real-time through the dashboard.
• Reward Management: Automatic collection and unified distribution. The ARMA agent will automatically gather and consolidate all rewards from various integrated DeFi protocols, and all rewards will be returned to users along with the principal and earnings upon withdrawal, without the need for manual operation by the user.
• Asset Management: ARMA does not charge any deposit or withdrawal fees. Regardless of how many agreements are involved or what types of coins are involved, users will always withdraw their funds in the original tokens deposited, ensuring the convenience of fund recovery.

![AgentFi to XenoFi, a new paradigm for stablecoin yields])https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-7d04b27509e9a41bb69bc6387181d50c.webp###

( 4.4 ARMA's integration into DeFi protocols and data performance

Through ARMA's official data dashboard (metrics.gizatech.xyz), we can visually observe the continuous growth of its asset management scale and the number of smart agents within a few months of its launch. At the same time, the dashboard also displays the dynamic flow of assets among mainstream lending protocols such as Morpho, Aave, and Fluid. We are