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.

As AI agents increasingly operate in DeFi, this infrastructure limitation becomes critical. We need standardized infrastructure that allows for secure, cost-effective automation with verifiable guardrails across multiple blockchain ecosystems. 

Automation needs guardrails, not guesswork

The rise of autonomous agents opens new possibilities: hands-free DeFi strategies, real-time portfolio optimization and crosschain arbitrage. Without programmable permissions and onchain visibility, however, delegating control to AI can expose users to catastrophic risk. Malicious bots, hallucinating agents and poorly designed automation can drain wallets before a human notices.

We’ve already seen what happens when agent infrastructure fails. In September 2024, users of the Telegram-based trading bot Banana Gun lost 563 Ether (ETH) (approximately $1.9 million) through an exploited oracle vulnerability that allowed attackers to intercept messages and gain unauthorized access to user wallets. More recently, attackers breached Aixbt’s dashboard and issued commands to transfer funds directly, resulting in the loss of 55.5 ETH worth over $100,000. These aren’t isolated incidents — they are warning signs of systemic vulnerability in our automation infrastructure. 

Legacy wallets can’t support autonomous agents

Despite years of wallet innovation, the architecture remains static mainly: sign a transaction, broadcast it, repeat. Most wallets aren’t built to understand “intent,” verify that automation matches user-defined rules, or restrict activity by time, asset type or strategy. 

This rigidity creates an all-or-nothing dynamic: either you maintain manual control and miss out on fast-moving opportunities or you hand over access entirely to opaque third-party systems. For AI-powered DeFi to scale securely as it builds more utility, we need programmable, composable and verifiable infrastructure. 

Programmable permissions are the new trust layer

As smart contracts encode logic into DeFi protocols, wallet infrastructure must encode logic into user control. That means enabling session-based permissions, cryptographic verification of agent actions and the ability to revoke access in real-time.

Recent: AI and blockchain — A match made in heaven

With these features in place, users can delegate trading, rebalancing or strategy execution without giving up complete control. This approach doesn’t just mitigate risk — it expands access. Advanced DeFi strategies could become accessible to users without technical knowledge and managed securely by agents operating within verifiable constraints. 

Programmable infrastructure makes DeFi scalable

Programmable wallet infrastructure doesn’t just make DeFi safer — it makes it scalable. Fragmentation across chains and protocols has long been a barrier to automated strategies. A universal keystore protocol that syncs permissions across networks can streamline crosschain delegation and open the door for interoperable agent ecosystems. 

As institutional interest in DeFi grows, secure automation will be non-negotiable. Most firms won’t allow AI agents to interact with capital without verifiable guardrails. Just as zero-knowledge proofs are becoming essential to privacy and compliance, programmable wallet permissions may become standard for agent-based security. 

The future of DeFi

Some may argue that AI can’t be trusted with financial autonomy, but traditional markets have already adopted algorithmic trading and black box automation. DeFi isn’t immune — it’s simply unprepared. 

If crypto is to maintain its transparency and user sovereignty principles, it must build infrastructure that keeps AI agents in check. That starts with rebuilding wallets as interfaces and operating systems for the autonomous, multichain economy. 

DeFi is on the edge of an automation revolution. The question isn’t whether agents will participate. Whether we give them the rails, they need to act in service of users, not in spite of them.

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

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

Key points:

Bitcoin analysis identifies the all-important price point to hold into the weekly close as all-time highs loom.

Liquidity is tightly clustered around current spot price, with $106,000 the likely next battleground.

Some traders are expecting the bid to enter price discovery to fail.

Bitcoin (BTC) preserved giant gains into the May 11 weekly close as analysis flagged the key level to hold next.

BTC/USD 1-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Analysis: BTC price can “kickstart the breakout process”

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed weekend upside volatility, delivering new multimonth highs of nearly $105,000.

A lack of liquidity during “out of hours” trading contributed to the move, which once more came on the back of positive rumors over a US-China trade deal.

$BTC
almost tagging $105K off again headlines

markets will want to see fruition of Trumps comments regarding a path forward with trade between US & China

Shipping data does already suggest insiders know hence container volume has briefly picked up again pic.twitter.com/AijqalylwS

— Skew Δ (@52kskew) May 10, 2025

Now, popular trader and analyst Rekt Capital confirmed that Bitcoin could even kickstart a return to all-time highs and price discovery.

The all-important weekly close level to flip to support, he said, lay at around $104,500.

“Can Bitcoin do it? Can Bitcoin Weekly Close above the Range High of its recently reclaimed Re-Accumulation Range to kickstart the breakout process?” he queried in a post on X alongside an explanatory chart.

“Bitcoin is on the cusp of beginning Price Discovery Uptrend 2.”BTC/USD 1-week chart. Source: Rekt Capital/X

An additional update calculated the current Bitcoin bull market as 85.5% complete, yet with the most erratic upswings still to come.

#BTC Bull Market Progress:

▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓░░ 85.5%

(Progress will speed up on Parabolic advances)$BTC #Crypto #Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/Qe88NVmo2z

— Rekt Capital (@rektcapital) May 9, 2025

A look at the latest exchange order book data from monitoring resource CoinGlass showed a large cloud of asks clustered around the area immediately below $106,000 at the time of writing.

Bids were laddered down to $102,000, creating a thickening band of liquidity around spot price into the weekly close.

BTC liquidation heatmap. Source: CoinGlass

Bitcoin can still retrace “entire move”

Some market participants remained bearish on short timeframes.

Related: Is Bitcoin about to go parabolic? BTC price targets include $160K next

On X, popular trader HTL-NL argued that the current push toward all-time highs would end as a “fakeout” to trap late longs.

“Will $BTC close/open the week remaining within the range, will it do a ‘fake out (UTAD)’ or was this really a reaccumulation range as many want to believe,” he wrote on the day. 

“To be honest, although I still favour the first 2 options based on M/Q charts, it being reaccumulation is not impossible.”BTC/USDT 1-hour chart. Source: HTL-NL/X

Another voice of caution, one all too familiar in Bitcoin trading circles, came in the form of fellow trader Il Capo of Crypto.

In his latest X updates, the pseudonymous commentator warned that BTC/USD could correct to the extent that its entire rebound disappears.

“This is the time to scale out, not in,” he argued on May 10. 

“Strong resistances are being tested, and if this is just a correction of the downtrend since January, the entire move could eventually be fully reversed.”

Il Capo of Crypto originally gained notoriety for his $12,000 BTC price targets at the start of the bull market in 2023.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

Crypto services platform Nexo shared its plans to reenter the United States market on Monday, marking the eighth major crypto firm to announce such plans since US President Donald Trump took office at the start of the year.

Firms like Circle, Binance and OKX are banking on favorable regulatory clarity in 2025 to herald their US expansion. Bills like the STABLE Act and the GENIUS Act are advancing in Congress, which, if implemented, will lay the groundwork for swift success.

Trump and his family are actively involved in some of these planned expansions. Nexo’s recent announcement was backed by Donald Trump Jr., who said, “We see the opportunity for the financial sector and want to ensure we bring that back to the US.”

Amid concerns of conflicts of interest and blatant token shilling by the Trump family, it remains to be seen whether these upcoming regulations will adequately protect everyday investors. Regardless, these are the eight firms that have banked on big bucks in the US this year.

Binance.US resumes USD services; CZ seeks clemency 

Binance.US officially reinstated USD deposit and withdrawal services less than a month into Trump’s presidency. 

They were halted on June 13, 2023, on the back of a civil enforcement action by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), claiming willful evasion of US laws and operating illegally in the country. Binance later settled for $2.7 billion; then-CEO Changpeng Zhao paid $150 million.

Soon after halting USD on- and off-ramps, the Securities and Exchange Commission sued Binance and its then-CEO, Changpeng Zhao, with a lawsuit. The agency claimed Zhao and Binance “engaged in an extensive web of deception, conflicts of interest, lack of disclosure, and calculated evasion of the law.”

In November 2023, Binance and CZ agreed on a settlement with the Department of Justice that included pleading guilty to federal charges, including violating Anti-Money Laundering laws, a $4.3-billion fine, CZ’s dismissal as CEO and a prison sentence.

Zhao has sought clemency from President Trump, who has pardoned a number of crypto executives. 

Zhao (right) discusses his clemency request. Source: Farokh Radio

eToro files for US IPO after 2024 enforcement action

Online trading platform eToro publicly filed its registration statement for a proposed initial public offering (IPO) on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol “ETOR.” The IPO is anticipated to occur as early as Q2 2025, pending market conditions, with eToro seeking a $4-billion valuation with plans to raise $500 million by offering 10 million Class A shares. 

The trading platform ran into some trouble with the SEC in 2024, when the agency claimed eToro “operated an unregistered broker and unregistered clearing agency in connection with its trading platform that facilitated buying and selling certain crypto assets as securities.”

As a result, eToro paid a fine and agreed to reduce its crypto offerings for US customers to Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Ether (ETH).

The move signals growing investor confidence in the future of retail cryptocurrency trading platforms in the US as the jurisdiction reorients its rules defining cryptocurrencies and loosens restrictions that made it more difficult for such platforms to receive banking services. 

OKX relaunches in the US months after $500-million settlement

OKX, a major global cryptocurrency exchange, announced its reentry into the US market in April 2025. The company is implementing a phased rollout plan throughout the year and has established a new regional headquarters in San Jose, California. The firm also named Roshan Robert, recently of Barclays, as head of its US operations. 

Edit the caption here or remove the text

The relaunch comes just months after the firm announced a settlement with the US Department of Justice (DOJ). US attorneys alleged that the platform “knowingly violated anti-money laundering laws and avoided implementing required policies to prevent criminals from abusing our financial system” for over seven years.

OKX paid a hefty $500-million fine, pleaded guilty to operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business, and agreed to pay for an external compliance consultant. In a statement, OKX said, “There were no allegations of customer harm, no charges against any Company employee and no government appointed monitor as part of the settlement.

Related: OKX to restart DEX with anti-abuse upgrades after Lazarus ‘misuse’

Robert told Fortune that the firm was ramping up its compliance and risk management infrastructures ahead of the relaunch.

He also cited the improving regulatory landscape as a contributor to the relaunch. “The rulemaking will take some time, but there is a path that we can see,” he said.

Nexo returns to US markets after deadlock with regulators

Nexo, a global digital assets wealth platform, announced its return to the US market on April 28, 2025, at an event in Sofia, Bulgaria. According to industry media, US customers will have access to Nexo’s asset-backed credit lines, crypto savings accounts and advanced trading options.

Nexo left the US in 2022 after 18 months of negotiations with federal regulators reached an impasse. Eight different state regulators had charged Nexo with allegedly failing to register its Earn Interest Product.

Nexo co-founder Antoni Trenchev credited the crypto-friendly approach of President Trump with his firm’s relaunch: “America is back — and so is Nexo.”

“Nexo is returning to America — stronger, smarter, and determined to win,” he added.

Circle relocates to NYC ahead of IPO

Circle, the issuer of the USDC (USDC) stablecoin, is relocating its global headquarters from Boston to New York City in early 2025. The move to One World Trade Center aligns with Circle’s plans for an initial public offering and reflects its commitment to integrating with traditional financial markets. 

Circle filed for its IPO on April 1 and plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange. JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup are serving as lead underwriters. The firm is seeking a $5-billion valuation. 

Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said, “Our new headquarters near the top of One World Trade Center is a symbol of the trust, security and stability we’re building as a critical infrastructure provider for the future of finance.”

Circle initially sought to go public via a blank-check firm in 2022, but the deal fell through. The deal would have valued Circle at $9 billion at the time. 

Crypto.com introduces stock and ETF trading

Crypto.com is expanding its services in the US throughout 2025, including introducing trading for stocks and ETFs. 

The company is rolling out these offerings in phases as part of its 2025 roadmap, including significant expansions of its banking, crypto, stock and credit card services for US customers. 

The plan shows the company’s broader strategy of integrating crypto with traditional finance, a theme recurring with many crypto and finance firms operating in the US.

Travis McGhee, Crypto.com managing director and head of global capital markets, said that the firm is letting clients “marry up that capability [trading stocks and ETFs] with your crypto trading, as well as your crypto derivative trading.” 

McGhee added that “there’s a lot of tailwinds” pushing the industry ahead, including an “administration that is […] looking to put a regulatory framework into place.” 

“That just bodes well for a strong market and a strong future for crypto.”

a16z returns to US after initial UK move

Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) announced that it is closing shop in the UK and focusing its efforts on the US. 

In a Jan. 24 X post, Anthony Albanese, chief operating officer of Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto arm, said the firm will be closing its UK branch despite the “enthusiasm for crypto building and adoption” in the country.

According to Sifted, the UK government had spent five years wooing a16z to move to London, just for the firm to leave 18 months after it opened its offices there.

Related: A16z leads $25M funding for Miden blockchain project

A16z launched offices in London in 2023, citing the regulatory environment under former President Joe Biden as too unfriendly to the blockchain industry. Albanese said there was “strong momentum” behind the crypto industry with the inauguration of President Trump.

Per TechCrunch, other factors driving a16z’s relocation were the slow progress on crypto in the UK and the Labour government shifting its priorities away from digital assets.

Coinbase acquires Deribit in bid to capture derivatives market

US-based crypto exchange Coinbase bought crypto derivatives platform Deribit for $2.9 billion on May 8. 

The merger makes Coinbase the largest crypto derivatives platform by open interest, per an exchange blog post. 

The deal comes as major crypto exchanges like Coinbase, Kraken and Robinhood jockey to dominate the growing global crypto derivative market. On the day of the announcement, Coinbase’s international derivatives exchange saw $10 billion in trading.

Source: Coinbase

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