Did AI Trading Agents Actually Work?

Today we're diving into AI trading agents, the rise of DeFAI, and whether autonomous trading bots are actually generating alpha. 

We discuss:

•  AI trading agents and the DeFAI hype cycle 
•  Eliza, Virtuals, and agentic trading products 
•  Onchain tracking vs qualitative research 
•  Whether agents actually made money 
•  Early wins, later losses, and extractive markets 
•  Alpha Arena and AI model trading competitions 
•  Why sample size matters for agent experiments 
•  Agent reliability, harnesses, and model variability 
•  AI workflows, Dune MCP, and product building 
•  ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, and personal productivity 
•  Ethereum bearishness, EVM success, and ETH value capture 
•  Stablecoins and prediction markets as local bull markets 

And much more—enjoy!
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 Timestamps:
 (00:00) Introduction
 (00:46) AI trading agents
 (01:26) DeFAI product promises
 (04:55) Eliza and Virtuals
 (05:08) Research methodology
 (12:58) Biggest wallet gains
 (14:48) Profitability fades
 (16:19) Alpha Arena experiment
 (19:18) Sample size problem
 (25:57) Learning from competitions
 (31:51) Dune MCP workflows
 (42:04) Ethereum bearishness
 (53:41) Outro
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Content links:
Agentic Trading paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.29174*

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Tweet 3: https://nof1.ai/leaderboard

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The Indexed Podcast discusses hot topics, trendy metrics and chart crimes in the crypto industry, with a new episode every 1st and 3rd Thursday of the month, brought to you by wizards @hildobby @0xBoxer @sui414.

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DISCLAIMER: All information presented here should not be relied upon as legal, financial, investment, tax or even life advice. The views expressed in the podcast are not representative of hosts' employers views. We are acting independently of our respective professional roles.