Author: Cambrian Network

Translated by: Deep Tide TechFlow

Deep Tide Guide: This is the most comprehensive quarterly industry report on the fusion sector of "AI Agent + crypto infrastructure," published by Cambrian Network. The report not only lists projects but also analyzes the evolution logic of the entire market: from decision rule standardization to LLM intelligence, from users holding keys to Agent autonomous execution, as well as the latest developments in key infrastructures like the x402 payment standard and ERC-8004 identity protocol. This report is essential reading for understanding the current landscape of the AgentFi sector and its direction toward 2026.

The full text is as follows:

Since we released the previous issue of the "Agentic Finance Panorama Report" in December 2025, this market segment has experienced explosive growth. We have witnessed a continuous emergence of new projects, with adoption rates consistently rising, as autonomous Agents operate leveraging crypto infrastructure. The data speaks for itself: x402 payments are accelerating, with over 15 million transactions completed in the past 30 days, and partnerships with major companies like AWS and Stripe have been established. The ERC-8004 went live on the mainnet in late January; it is a standard aimed at establishing trust between Agents and the market.

Agentic Finance Panorama Report Q1 2026

This report investigates the panorama of autonomous products supporting retail user participation in decentralized finance (DeFi). As before, we have set strict selection criteria: selected projects must be active, publicly available, possess real users and operational funds. Agents are categorized by product type.

Note: In this report, products previously classified as "liquidity providing Agents" and "lending Agents" have been merged into the broader "yield" category, reflecting the increasingly diversified trends in how Agents generate yields.

What is Agentic Finance?

Agentic Finance is an emerging market segment where products use automation technology to actively manage user funds or provide financial advice. Inspired by emerging open-source Agent tools like ChatGPT, Claude Code, OpenClaw, and Moltbot, some products use LLMs, while others utilize hard-coded rules or traditional machine learning. Regardless of the underlying technology, many describe themselves as "agentic."

The early forms of Agentic Finance are simple automated trading bots. The DeFi summer of 2020-2021 brought yield farming bots and vault protocols such as Yearn that could automatically harvest and compound returns, but the logic remained deterministic: if X holds, then execute Y. By 2022-2023, automation had expanded across protocols and chains (bots managing collateral ratios, rebalancing LP positions, chasing yields in lending markets), but users still held keys and set each parameter.

The first real shift occurred in 2024 when LLMs entered the tech stack, allowing us to see natural language interfaces, AI-driven analysis Agents, and conversational trading. A decisive breakthrough occurred in 2025—the emergence of closed-loop Agents that act according to strict rules without human approval. Today, Agentic Finance is an established market category, and the Cambrian team is proud to be the first to promote the terms "agentic finance" and "AgentFi" that describe this submarket. The products covered in this report represent the next major step in the evolution of AgentFi: software capable of making decisions, managing capital, and paying for its own operations.

Autonomy and Intelligence in Agentic Finance

Agentic Finance projects span multiple professional use cases, but each can be placed on a simple coordinate system. The horizontal axis represents the level of intelligence: on the left are rule-based systems reliant on mathematics and statistics, on the right are LLM-based systems (which many now refer to as "AI Agents"). The vertical axis represents the level of autonomy: at the bottom are tools that provide information, in the middle are systems needing human intervention, and at the top are systems that autonomously execute within a strategic scope without requiring approval.

Since the release of the first report, the market focus has shifted upward towards greater autonomy, while the products with the largest asset management scale still remain on the rule-based side of capital allocation decisions. LLMs demonstrate their advantages in interface, information retrieval, and analysis, but when it comes to capital flows, algorithm-based rule Agents remain mainstream because reliability and auditability are crucial.

Market Growth of AgentFi in 2025-2026

Growth Data

Since the last report was published, the ecosystem has continued to expand. The number of independent users of on-chain AgentFi products has consistently risen. In the past 30 days, Bankr and Giza led in user deposits, each with over 900 deposits.

Among the leading Agent projects in the field, yield-seeking Agents are at the center of discussions alongside trading and portfolio optimization Agents.

We are also seeing growing institutional interest, with active investments directed toward building the infrastructure needed for exponential growth in Agentic Finance. Some examples include Grayscale launching a decentralized AI fund by the end of 2025, Robinhood releasing the Cortex assistant for retail users, and Visa introducing a Trusted Agent Protocol based on the Coinbase x402 payment standard for AI business scenarios.

x402 continues to expand on new chains, now supporting BSC and Polygon in addition to the previously supported Base and Solana. Although recent market conditions have slowed growth, Agent payment volumes remain strong, with cumulative transaction volumes exceeding $50 million. In the past 30 days, most x402 transaction volumes were processed by Virtuals.

Emerging Trends

If you are active on X, you may have noticed that the timeline has recently been filled with OpenClaw-style Agents built on the OpenClaw core framework, such as clawdbotatg. These Agents can autonomously complete payments, mint tokens, execute AI-driven crypto trades, and participate in prediction markets.

Bankr has become a widely used execution layer for these OpenClaw Agents, offering programmable wallets and automatic fee redirection to help cover operational costs. Not just Bankr—currently over 80 projects are building Agentic infrastructure targeted at OpenClaw-style Agents on Base, enabling their participation in Agentic Finance.

Various emerging Agents are also actively utilizing the recently launched ERC-8004 to register their identities as NFTs and build reputational histories to prove their legitimacy. Since ERC-8004 went live on January 29, over 24,000 Agents have registered.

Under the combination of all the standards previously mentioned (ERC-8004, x402, AP2, ACP), crypto infrastructure is proving to be the most powerful foundation for AI Agents to hold, transfer, and create monetary value without any gatekeeping. A recent example is Coinbase's newly launched Agentic Wallets.

Agentic Finance Panorama Q1 2026

In early 2026, retail users are the early adopters of Agentic Finance, while institutions are interested but still far from full adoption. Below is a list of the most representative retail-focused AgentFi products.

Cambrian has set strict screening criteria for the included Agentic Finance panorama: we do not include projects that are still in development or internal testing stages, nor do we include projects that only provide LLM interfaces but require humans to make "critical" decisions. This excludes many projects.

Trading and Portfolio Optimization Agents

Trading Agents are the products most people first think of when they hear "agentic finance." These Agents manage user funds by rebalancing portfolios or selecting assets to buy and sell. Trading decisions require access to exchanges, tradable assets, budgets, trade guidelines or rules, and high-quality data. The following tools support one or more of the above aspects.

@askjimmy_ai: An AI signal terminal with win rates/profits and losses, supporting one-click execution.

@HeyAnonai: Spot and leverage trading configured through natural language prompts.

@get_truenorth: Trading capabilities supported by advanced discovery and research engines.

@AIWayfinder: Using on-chain Agents for multi-chain autonomous trading.

@bankrbot: An all-in-one DeFi terminal supporting cross-chain exchange and automated strategies.

@glider_fi: Automated, customizable portfolio management.

@AgentHustleAI: A DeFi personal assistant covering basics from exchanges to custom automation strategies.

@Velvet_Capital: A DeFi application equipped with an information assistant that can execute basic operations (like exchanges).

@SurfAI: A DeFi research and execution assistant combining deep market analysis with automated trading workflows.

@HeyElsaAI: An AI assistant for managing crypto assets, executing DeFi trades, and providing real-time cross-chain data.

@elfa_ai: An analysis-centric trading assistant, combining social signals with intelligent wallet tracking.

@ethy_agent: An autonomous trading assistant that executes trades, staking, yields, and transfers directly from the user's smart wallet.

@symphonyio: A cross-chain DeFi execution terminal featuring AI trading assistance.

@Cod3xOrg: An event-driven trading engine equipped with a terminal supporting updatable algorithmic trading strategies.

@autonolas: An autonomous portfolio management Agent deployed via desktop, supporting adaptive DeFi strategies.

@Butler_Agent: Orchestration Agent that executes trades, yield farming, and DeFi automation through Virtuals Protocol Agents.

@fere_ai: An AI assistant supporting cross-chain, meme coin, prediction market, and DeFi protocol trading.

@modenetwork: A perpetual DEX with LLM-driven trading Agents that execute 24/7 according to user-configured strategies.

@minara: An AI trading assistant with perpetual contract assistants and customizable Agent workflows.

@MiloOnChains: A Solana trading Agent supporting natural language execution and optional 24-hour automated trading.

Yield Agents

There are several ways to earn yields in AgentFi, the most popular currently being through lending protocols (borrowers pay interest, lenders earn yields). Users can also provide liquidity in DEX (decentralized exchange) liquidity pools to earn transaction fees or deposit funds in selected Vaults that allocate funds across multiple venues. The following Agents help users find the best risk-adjusted returns in these strategies.

Note: In previous versions of this report, we separated LP Agents and yield Agents into different categories. Over time, we found that more and more projects integrated various yield generation strategies, including but not limited to lending, LP, and spot trading.

@afiprotocol_xyz: Managing liquidity and derivatives strategies for yield optimization via non-custodial algorithmic Agents.

@almanak: Multi-strategy yield optimization utilizing AI-generated strategies.

ARMA by @gizatechxyz: Stablecoin yield Agent.

@ArrakisFinance: Automated market-making strategies.

@getaxal: Finding optimal lending protocols, liquidity pools, and delta-neutral yield strategies.

@DeFiSaver: Lending across all major protocols, providing automatic anti-liquidation protection.

@Infinit_Labs: A DeFi abstraction layer offering one-click preset Agents and prompting DeFi strategies.

@kamino: An automated lending protocol on Solana that provides optimized yields, leveraged positions, and modular credit markets.

@uselulo: Generating yields by depositing funds into over-collateralized lending pools.

@mamo: A financial assistant designed to simplify personal finance management.

@pendle_fi: Autonomous yield optimization across lending protocols, Vaults, and delta-neutral strategies.

@SaildotMoney: Automatically rotating funds between lending pools, Vaults, and AMMs.

@superformxyz: A non-custodial on-chain digital bank aggregating returns from cross-chain lending protocols, supporting cross-chain deposits.

@Surf_Liquid: On-chain DeFi Agent autonomously managing stablecoin yields with verifiable rebalancing records.

@RFLnow: Autonomous Agent on Base, managing end-to-end LP yield farming, including deploying liquidity, harvesting, rebalancing, and optimizing returns.

@Zyfai_: Lending yield management.

Prediction and Gambling Agents

Prediction markets are platforms where users can trade on the outcome of future events (such as election results or sports games). Such markets often require tracking news and other real-time changes in real-world information. Prediction markets are one of the most exciting emerging categories in AgentFi. Agents can gather and track real-world event information from a broader range of data sources than humans can manually process, making them ideal participants in prediction markets.

We expect this subfield to continue growing in 2026. Academic research (such as the one from the Federal Reserve) shows that prediction markets can provide valuable insights to decision-makers. Meanwhile, the CFTC is advocating for its authority to override state opposition and legalize prediction markets.

@AskBillyBets: Active in crypto-based sports betting and prediction markets.

@sire_agent: A collection of autonomous sports betting funds driven by AI strategy execution.

Sentiment, Fundamental, News, and Technical Analysis Agents

Investors often use market analysis to judge what to buy and sentiment analysis to decide when to buy and sell. LLMs have significantly transformed market analysis and sentiment analysis by expanding the amount of data analyzed, speeding up the analysis process, and forming deeper contextual understandings by identifying connections between data sources. The significant difference between analysis Agents and the previously mentioned Agents is that they do not take action directly but provide informational guidance. There are numerous analysis Agents; below are a few examples.

@aixbt_agent: Crypto market intelligence, narrative detection, alpha analysis, KOL tracking.

@DeepFortyTwo: An alpha discovery Agent monitoring high-signal tweets on X, scoring analyses on on-chain and off-chain information.

LlamaAI by @DefiLlama: A DeFi data assistant querying the DefiLlama database for TVL, yields, fees, and token analyses.

Messari Copilot by @MessariCrypto: Providing question-and-answer services with citations, driven by Messari research and real-time data.

The Next Step for Agentic Finance in 2026

The first quarter of 2026 has tested crypto infrastructure under pressure. After breaking the $4 trillion peak, the total crypto market cap has pulled back amidst macro uncertainty. However, BlackRock's IBIT (iShares Bitcoin Trust) recorded a historic single-day trading volume of $10 billion in early February; tokenized RWA has surpassed $20 billion (with tokenized government bonds reaching $8-10 billion, up from $5.5 billion in Q3 2025); the supply of stablecoins has surged to $310 billion.

Regulatory Clarity and the Integration of DeFi, TradFi, and AI

The regulatory landscape continues to evolve towards providing clear rules for the sustained growth of the crypto economy. We see this as a significant advancement, as clarity in regulation is key to attracting more capital from TradFi into crypto tracks. For example, under the leadership of Chairman Paul Atkins, the SEC announced "innovation exemptions" and upcoming "crypto regulatory" rulemaking, while the CLARITY Act (clarifying CFTC/SEC jurisdiction) has a realistic possibility of passing before the November 2026 midterm elections. Meanwhile, Hong Kong is preparing to issue its first stablecoin licenses in March 2026; the UK's FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) has opened a regulatory sandbox supporting stablecoin issuance in the UK; the comprehensive CASP (Crypto Asset Service Provider) compliance deadline for MiCA will arrive in July 2026 - after a number of EU exchanges delisted USDT last year, Circle's EURC has become the dominant compliant euro stablecoin.

The combination of regulatory clarity and proven crypto infrastructure is laying the groundwork for institutional capital to be onboarded and for the scaling maturity of Agentic Finance. In the coming months, we expect institutional adoption and Agentic Finance to continue to grow, but they will develop along parallel tracks. Agentic Finance must first establish a credible performance record for retail users before institutions will allocate meaningful capital; only then will these two trajectories converge.

We also anticipate that as new autonomous Agent trends (like OpenClaw) emerge needing programmatic access to APIs, computational power, and third-party services, the usage of stablecoins and Agent payments will continue to grow. As the native settlement layer for machine-to-machine transactions, stablecoins are expected to be a key catalyst for Agentic Finance's move toward mainstream.