Since 2024, AI Agents have rapidly emerged within the Web3 ecosystem, sparking a wave of experimentation centered around autonomous agents. From a full-stack AI perspective, AI Agents not only serve as interfaces that handle interaction and execution, but also represent a new user-facing product paradigm. Acting as a bridge between foundational AI models and specific business applications, they encapsulate model capabilities into task-oriented, autonomous entities that directly execute tasks for users and generate real economic activity.

The AI Agent protocol stack can be divided into three core layers:

Infrastructure Layer (Agent Infrastructure Layer):
This provides the foundational runtime support for agents and serves as the technical bedrock for all agent-based systems.

• Core Modules: Include the Agent Framework (tools and frameworks for developing and running agents) and Agent OS (a lower-level modular runtime with multitasking and swarm scheduling support), enabling full lifecycle management for agents.

• Supporting Modules: Such as Agent DID (decentralized identity), Agent Wallet & Abstraction (account abstraction and transaction execution), and Agent Payment/Settlement (on-chain payment and settlement capabilities).

Coordination & Execution Layer:
This layer focuses on coordination, task scheduling, and incentive mechanisms across multiple agents, and is key to enabling "collective intelligence" among agents.

• Agent Orchestration: A centralized control mechanism that manages agent lifecycles, task assignment, and execution processes, suitable for workflows with centralized coordination.

• Agent Swarm: A decentralized collaboration structure emphasizing autonomy, division of labor, and elastic coordination—ideal for dynamic and complex task environments.

• Agent Incentive Layer: The economic system that incentivizes agent networks, encouraging participation from developers, executors, and validators, and ensuring long-term sustainability of the ecosystem.

Application & Distribution Layer:

• Distribution Subcategory: Includes Agent Launchpads, Agent Marketplaces, and Agent Plugin Networks.

• Application Subcategory: Includes AgentFi, Agent-Native DApps, and Agent-as-a-Service.

• Consumer Subcategory: Includes Agent Social/Consumer Agents, which focus on lightweight use cases like entertainment and social interaction.

• Meme Subcategory: Projects that capitalize on the "agent" narrative without real technical depth or implementation—driven largely by hype and marketing.

AI Agent Protocol Stack

In early 2024, platform-level agent projects such as Autonolas (Olas) and Morpheus, which focused on coordination and incentive mechanisms, were among the first to gain market attention. However, by the end of 2024, it was the emergence of Agent Launchpad projects—exemplified by Virtual Protocol—and a surge in AI Agent-themed meme tokens that truly ignited industry-wide hype.

The rise of Agent Launchpads was largely driven by speculative enthusiasm sparked by meme coins. These projects typically offer strong narratives, high virality, low technical barriers, and ease of replication. However, due to the lack of mid- to long-term value loops and real application backbones, they often fall into the trap of narrative exhaustion and user attrition. In contrast, the long-term value of platform-level or framework-based agent projects depends on whether they can construct closed-loop intelligent coordination networks grounded in real business use cases—for example, deploying multi-agent collaboration models (Swarm, Orchestration) tightly integrated with real economic activities such as liquidity mining, yield optimization, and payment settlement.

Among all sectors in the crypto industry, stablecoins, payments, and DeFi remain some of the few domains with verified user demand and long-term value. Within the realm of AI agent deployment, two categories currently offer the most feasible and user-valuable short-term applications:

1. Chat/Social/Assistant-type interactive agents: While many are thin wrappers over existing interfaces, their low barrier to entry enables fast onboarding for Web2 users.

2. Strategy-executing agents in DeFi: These agents handle on-chain capital operations with measurable economic returns, short feedback cycles, and quantifiable strategy effectiveness.

As the industry gradually shifts from narrative to real utility, AI teams with genuine engineering capability and the ability to deliver tangible value will become the key drivers of progress. We believe AgentFi is currently the most promising direction to achieve a balance between technical feasibility and business usability.

Based on the current structure of on-chain assets and the level of automation achievable by agents, AgentFi’s practical implementation is primarily focused on the following segments:

• Lending Agents: Focused on automated interest rate arbitrage and cross-protocol fund allocation (e.g., Giza’s ARMA), helping users optimize lending/borrowing yields across multiple platforms. Future iterations may support risk exposure management and leveraged strategies.

• Trading Agents: Primarily designed for intent-based automation rather than "autonomous profit-making." These agents function more like copilot assistants rather than "trading AIs that make money for you." Future potential includes cross-platform arbitrage (DEX/CEX price gaps), trend following, grid trading, and mean-reversion execution strategies.

• Liquidity Mining / LP Management Agents: Targeting the automation of concentrated LP strategies (like Uniswap V3), intelligent rebalancing based on volatility signals, and optimal capital allocation across incentive-driven protocols like Curve and Balancer. This category faces the highest technical barriers (which Theoriq is actively addressing) but offers the greatest long-term potential and room for innovation.

From the perspective of strategy complexity, real-time requirements, infrastructure dependency, and yield predictability:

• Lending agents benefit from stable data structures and simpler strategies, making them easier to implement.

• LP management agents, however, face the most technical challenges within AgentFi. These strategies require real-time responses to price movements, volatility shifts, and fee accumulation metrics. Agents must possess high levels of data awareness, strategic judgment, and reliable on-chain execution capabilities. Compared to lending and trading agents, LP agents must accurately forecast market conditions and execute dynamic rebalancing and yield redistribution on-chain, which significantly increases engineering complexity.

AgentFi Application Areas Overview

Theoriq aims to build an agentic economy through the coordination of AI agent swarms, with on-chain liquidity management and yield optimization as one of its key application areas. Its flagship product, AlphaSwarm, takes on one of the most technically challenging domains in AgentFi—liquidity provisioning—standing in stark contrast to narrative-driven, low-barrier projects like Launchpads or meme tokens. This article offers an in-depth analysis of Theoriq and its flagship AlphaSwarm, exploring their technical architecture, product roadmap, core challenges, market positioning, and future outlook.

On May 29, 2025, Theoriq publicly released its roadmap for mainnet launch and officially rebranded its core system as Theoriq Alpha Protocol, with AlphaSwarm as its flagship application. Mainnet is scheduled to go live in July 2025.

Theoriq Alpha Protocol is a decentralized framework built for multi-agent collaboration, financial task execution, and liquidity optimization. It fills critical infrastructure gaps in DeFi’s coordination and execution layers. Key features include:

• Messaging & Coordination: Secure communication channels for agent-agent and user-agent interactions, supporting both synchronous calls and asynchronous messaging via built-in pub/sub streams.

• Public Agent Registry: All agents receive a permanent on-chain ID and metadata; initially deployed on Base mainnet, allowing open registration and modular composition.

• Configurable Agent Templates: No-code configuration for parameters like risk thresholds; projects and communities can define behavioral strategies for automated execution.

• Programmatic Access: REST APIs and official Python SDK lower integration barriers for developers building with agents.

• AlphaStudio Interface: Formerly Infinity Studio & Hub, provides a dashboard for browsing, managing, and invoking agents—serving as the gateway to the AgentFi experience.

With partnerships across DeFi protocols, Theoriq positions Alpha Protocol as the “Operating System for Agents,” and AlphaSwarm as the first real-world application demonstrating AI-driven asset management—from signal extraction and strategy generation to automated capital deployment.

Built atop Alpha Protocol, AlphaSwarm is the first production-grade multi-agent system, showcasing full-cycle collaborative execution from strategy generation to on-chain execution. It includes three primary agents:

• Portal Agent: Detects user wallet state and coordinates task entry points

• Knowledge Agent: Accesses on-chain/off-chain data, generates insights and strategies

• LP Assistant Agent: Builds executable on-chain proposals based on user parameters, automating liquidity management

These agents form a closed-loop system: task discovery → data analysis → strategy formulation → on-chain execution, requiring no user intervention. Future versions will expand into areas like:

• Yield aggregation and reinvestment

• Smart staking/restaking scheduling

• Cross-chain strategy management

• Automated liquidity routing

The long-term goal is to build a superhuman-level multi-agent system for end-to-end DeFi asset management.

Theoriq is building a multidimensional ecosystem network that spans AI infrastructure, data collaboration, compute acceleration, and community engagement. It has established deep partnerships with leading technology companies and Web3 infrastructure projects. Through participation in the Google Cloud AI Startup Program and NVIDIA Inception Program, Theoriq has secured hundreds of thousands of dollars in cloud credits and access to high-performance GPUs—significantly boosting the training and execution capabilities of its AI agents.

At the data and compute layer, Theoriq is building a modular capability network in collaboration with several key infrastructure partners:

• Kaito: A core community and ecosystem partner, supporting leaderboard incentive mechanisms and Mindshare-driven content distribution.

• Arrakis Finance and Keyrock: Strategic partners for vault management and market-making strategies, respectively.

• Aethir and Hyperbolic: Providers of decentralized high-performance compute, enabling inference at scale for multi-agent architectures.

• The Graph: Powers real-time, high-precision data feeds to ensure agents maintain agile and accurate market perception in DeFi strategy execution.

• Cookie.fun: Supplies user intent and behavioral data to support agent coordination and optimization.

At the community level, Theoriq has launched the Infinity Swarm Global Ambassador Program. Targeting creators and community builders, the program includes multiple tiers (e.g., Thought Leader, Infinity Ronbot, Guroo Prime) and offers benefits such as early access, USDC rewards, event tickets, and exclusive merchandise. In collaboration with Kaito, Theoriq launched the Yapper Leaderboard, which quickly attracted hundreds of thousands of engaged members, significantly boosting community participation and visibility. The team also actively engages in major crypto conferences like ETHDenver, DevCon, and SmartCon, and regularly hosts or co-hosts hackathons to expand its technical influence and ecosystem presence in the AgentFi space.

The Theoriq Alpha ecosystem is driven by a positive feedback loop involving four core stakeholder groups, each reinforcing the system’s collective value:

• AI Developers: Including agent builders, AI framework maintainers, data providers, and AI infra teams. Through AlphaSwarm, they can access data, coordinate execution, deploy strategies, and earn income through execution and revenue sharing.

• DeFi Protocols: Such as DEXs, yield aggregators, market makers, intent-based protocols, and vaults. By integrating with agents, they can automate operations, deepen liquidity, and enhance capital efficiency and protocol activity.

• Token Projects: Teams with treasury capital and strong communities can use AlphaSwarm to optimize capital deployment and boost community engagement, improving token utility and ecosystem vibrancy.

• Token Holders: As the most direct beneficiaries, token holders gain access to more user-friendly interactions and new earning opportunities, such as automated liquidity mining and strategy yield participation.

This system creates effective alignment between developers, protocols, capital providers, and end users—enabling Alpha to form a self-reinforcing value loop for the AgentFi ecosystem.

In July 2025, Theoriq officially announced the tokenomics design for $THQ, positioning it as the core "fuel" of the decentralized AI agent network. $THQ powers protocol access, execution rights, incentive alignment, and network security. The agent flywheel is built around three foundational pillars:

1. Alpha Protocol as Native Infrastructure: Provides core onchain execution primitives for AI agents, including strategy orchestration, vault management, and cross-ecosystem coordination. Agents are required to stake $THQ to access Alpha.

2. AlphaSwarm as Execution Layer: Automates complex DeFi operations, driving adoption among token projects, DeFi protocols, and asset allocators. This increases TVL and generates protocol fees.

3. Security via Incentivized Staking: $THQ stakers contribute to protocol security and are rewarded with protocol fees paid by agents, ensuring economic alignment and defense against malicious behavior.

• 24% to Core Contributors: 1-year lock + 3-year linear vesting

• 30% to Investors: aligns early capital with long-term growth

• 18% for Community Incentives: ambassadors, partners, agent operators, contributors

• 28% to Treasury: supports protocol operations and strategic partnerships

• Multi-year incentive programs to reward early adopters and maintain long-term participation.

Protocol Access Payments

• Protocol Fees: Generated by agent strategy execution and vault management, forming the core revenue stream.

• Partner Project Payments: Projects integrating AlphaSwarm must purchase and pay with $THQ, creating organic demand and reinforcing the value loop.

Direct Incentives & Ecosystem Rewards

• Staking ($THQ → sTHQ): Locks economic value, secures the protocol, and earns emissions and partner rewards.

• Locking (sTHQ → αTHQ): Time-locked staking (1–24 months) mints non-transferable αTHQ, unlocking higher emissions and time-weighted power.

Agent Incentive Distribution & Delegation Rewards

• Delegation: αTHQ can be delegated to agents, granting them higher operational capacity and improving discoverability.

• Delegator Benefits: Include protocol fee discounts, shared agent revenue, and exclusive incentives.

• Slashing & Accountability: Misbehaving agents can have delegated αTHQ and underlying sTHQ slashed, ensuring economic consequences for poor performance.

Treasury Management

• Slashing & Burning: Slashed αTHQ and sTHQ are burned to strengthen deflationary security.

• Active Treasury Management: The foundation manages treasury assets—including $THQ—strategically to support community incentives, adoption, and sustainability.

Theoriq’s token model enables seamless participation across multiple stakeholder roles: users gain access and discounts by holding $THQ; stakers secure the network and earn emissions; delegators support agents and receive performance-based rewards; developers build and operate agents for monetization; and liquidity providers contribute assets to vaults in exchange for automated returns. All actions are tightly integrated with $THQ, creating a unified system where value generation and behavior are economically aligned.

In most current crypto projects, the core utility of tokens remains limited to incentives and governance. In contrast, Theoriq’s $THQ introduces a new paradigm—centering on the lifecycle of AI agents, where agents are treated as the primary behavioral units of onchain systems, while users participate passively around agent activity. Rather than merely serving as a reward token, $THQ functions more like a “system language” within the AgentFi ecosystem. Its token economy is designed to coordinate the deployment, execution, and accountability of agents:

• Agents must stake $THQ before deployment to gain execution access

• Agents need delegated αTHQ from users to boost their ranking and execution power

• High-performing agents receive more protocol revenue and visibility

• Poor performance or malicious behavior triggers slashing, with both agents and delegators bearing the consequences

Compared to other leading Crypto-AI projects, Theoriq’s $THQ stands out with its structural differentiation:
Bittensor’s TAO rewards compute providers but doesn’t govern agent execution;
Giza’s ARMA incentivizes strategy outcomes but lacks control over execution rights;
Olas serves as an incentive infrastructure layer without engaging in agent-level permissioning.

In contrast, Theoriq’s $THQ is not just a reward instrument—it’s an agent orchestration token, integrating access control, revenue distribution, and behavioral accountability into a unified system. This three-layered coordination design forms one of the most distinctive token architectures in the current Crypto Agent landscape.

The team behind Theoriq—ChainML—has completed two rounds of fundraising: In September 2022, it raised $4M in a seed round led by IOSG Ventures. In May 2024, it closed a $6.2M seed extension led by Hack VC, with participation from Foresight Ventures, Inception Capital, HTX Ventures, Figment Capital, Hypersphere Ventures, and Alumni Ventures This round was structured as a “token + equity warrant” deal, with funding allocated to expanding the engineering and research team and accelerating Theoriq’s mainnet launch.

The Theoriq team is composed of AI and blockchain engineers from industry-leading firms such as Google, ConsenSys, Goldman Sachs, and Dell. Key members include:

• Ron Bodkin, CEO (former Head of AI Strategy at Google Cloud)

• Jeremy Millar, Chairman (co-founder of ConsenSys)

• Pei Chen, COO

• David Mueller, CPO

• Arnaud Flament, CTO

• Ethan Jackson, Head of Research

The team brings deep expertise across artificial intelligence, product engineering, protocol design, and financial systems—driving Theoriq’s mission to deliver practical, scalable AI agents for liquidity management and yield optimization in DeFi.

Theoriq is purpose-built as a multi-agent coordination hub for DeFi use cases, with a strong focus on enabling agents to collaboratively execute real asset management strategies. Its AlphaSwarm defines clear role separation, coordination logic, and incentive mechanisms, aiming to serve as an on-chain operating system (Agent OS) for AgentFi—prioritizing utility-driven adoption over general-purpose frameworks.

Unlike generalist agent networks such as Olas and Talus, Theoriq explicitly targets capital-intensive, high-frequency on-chain interactions within DeFi. It builds a full-stack agent coordination loop, covering data sensing, strategy generation, proposal execution, and reward attribution.

• Olas serves as a registration and incentive protocol layer for agents, offering primitives for publishing, invocation, and token-based rewards.

• Talus focuses on agent behavior verification and on-chain traceability, enabling trusted execution. Both are positioned more as infrastructural layers than application-specific implementations.

Meanwhile, Virtual Protocol is developing a trustless Agent Commerce Protocol (ACP), enabling agents to autonomously place orders, fulfill transactions, make payments, and leave reviews. While both Virtual and Theoriq emphasize multi-agent coordination, their focal points differ:

• Virtual aims to build infrastructure for general agent-to-agent transactions

• Theoriq targets the creation of financially productive agent networks, specifically in DeFi

Therefore, they are not direct competitors and may even be complementary.

Theoriq also differentiates itself from agent frameworks like ElizaOS, Zerebro, Arc, and Swarms, which focus on individual agent development (similar to AutoGPT toolkits). In contrast, Theoriq is building a chain-native multi-agent runtime, optimized for communication, coordination, and capital strategy execution—a true Agentic Economy for DeFi.

Within the specific vertical of AgentFi + DeFi liquidity management, direct competitors to Theoriq Alpahswarm are limited. The segment has high technical barriers and requires significant engineering to operationalize, which few projects have tackled.

In the crypto space, stablecoins (payment/settlement), DeFi (liquidity & capital growth), and identity/data (verifiability) are among the few verticals with clearly validated real-world demand. Unlike meme-driven agent projects focused on hype and traffic, Theoriq directly targets DeFi’s core pain points: liquidity management and automated capital operations.

By constructing a modular, multi-agent system (Swarm of Agents), Theoriq enables an end-to-end execution loop—sensing → decision-making → proposal generation → on-chain execution—supporting cross-protocol, cross-chain capital optimization. This practical orientation grounds Theoriq’s narrative in real use cases and positions it as a functional pillar of the AgentFi movement.

Theoriq is not just repackaging the “AgentFi” meme—it has built a complete engineering stack combining Alpha Protocol and AlphaSwarm. Unlike traditional rule-based automation, Theoriq integrates LLMs, RL (reinforcement learning), and real-time on-chain signal processing to evolve toward strategic, adaptive agent systems—laying the foundation for long-term competitive advantage.

However, liquidity management is the most technically demanding area within AgentFi. Despite the difficulty, these challenges are precisely the problems Theoriq is committed to solving. Overcoming them would establish powerful moats and structural advantages. As the market shifts from narrative-driven hype to engineering delivery and value realization, Theoriq stands out as one of the few projects that balance technical viability and commercial utility, and has the potential to become core infrastructure for the AgentFi sector.