AI agents are coming for DeFi — Wallets are the weakest link

Without programmable infrastructure, DeFi risks becoming the next frontier for unchecked automation and financial exploitation. DeFi faces vulnerabilities that could hinder its evolution.

Opinion by: Sean Li, co-founder of Magic Labs

Crypto markets run 24/7. Human traders don’t. As AI agents begin to manage liquidity, optimize yield, and execute trades at all hours, they’re quickly becoming essential infrastructure for decentralized finance’s (DeFi) future. While AI agents are evolving from niche tools for quant traders into mainstream financial operators, they’re rapidly outpacing the wallets meant to secure them. 

Advancements in account abstraction and smart contract wallets have emerged, but most DeFi platforms still predominately rely on externally owned account wallets that require manual approvals at every step. Early-stage programmable solutions exist but remain fragmented, costly on layer-1 networks and adopted by only a tiny fraction of users.

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