Editor’s note: The year 2025 is set to be the year of the rise of stablecoins. The United States has introduced the "GENIUS Act," and South Korea's new president Lee Jae-myung is also fulfilling his campaign promise to allow local companies to issue stablecoins. At both national and corporate levels, with Standard Chartered Bank and Huakong leading the way, and followed by JD.com and Ant Group, domestic and international corporate giants are exploring the issuance of various stablecoins.
Crypto AI researcher Jeff published an analysis of the existing problems in current crypto + AI projects, which are too "pro-AI and anti-crypto," making it difficult for them to establish a foothold in DeFi. In addition, Jeff listed some noteworthy AI + stablecoin projects, translated by Odaily Planet Daily as follows.
Stablecoins are one of the most important infrastructures created for cryptocurrencies. Without stablecoins, we would not have stable units of currency for investors to allocate funds (which would make it very difficult to build CEXs, DEXs, Perps, money markets, and any other verticals).
Stablecoins are rapidly gaining popularity — from 2023 to 2025, the total supply, trading volume, and circulation velocity (the frequency of stablecoin transactions) are expected to surge, especially in terms of payments and cross-border transactions.
In addition, we have seen clearer regulatory guidelines and further adoption of institutional stablecoins, such as Stripe launching stablecoin financial accounts in 101 countries, Société Générale introducing a dollar-backed stablecoin, major banks (Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Citibank, Wells Fargo) exploring the joint issuance of stablecoins, and large enterprises exploring stablecoin payment options to reduce transaction fees with Visa and Mastercard, etc.
Recently, the IPO of CRCL (Circle) has also sparked a stablecoin craze, attracting more stakeholders. We see further adoption of TradFi while also witnessing some stablecoin innovations emerging in the field of artificial intelligence, aimed at addressing the challenges faced by service providers and users in Web3 artificial intelligence.
The First Challenge
Although AI teams often design AI tokens as a key part of the AI ecosystem (payments, governance, utilities), they usually invest fewer resources in DeFi and allocate more resources to AI products.
Example:
Virtuals Protocol uses their VIRTUAL/AGENT LP, which brings good value appreciation to VIRTUAL, but at the same time makes it difficult for the agent team and liquidity providers to provide liquidity (due to impermanent loss);
Aethir uses the ATH token for computational power payments, which pushes the value of the token but also increases its volatility;
Bittensor uses dTAO (alpha subnet token) to pay miners, validators, and subnet owners. Participants must sell alpha tokens for stablecoins to maintain their operations;
Although both of these examples can be seen as flywheels for AI tokens, the volatility caused by their design may also deter some key participants from getting involved. (BTW, these 3 examples are relatively excellent, but there are also many AI teams that have done quite poorly in token design, especially some fair launch teams.)
The increase in the number of tokens in the market, coupled with suboptimal design, has resulted in low liquidity, making it difficult to build the Lego blocks of DeFi.
Project to address the issue of "uneven resource allocation"
MAITRIX—AI Stablecoin Layer
Maitrix has launched an over-collateralized AI native stablecoin (AI USD) tailored for each independent ecosystem, essentially transforming the unstable (but high-yielding) AI economy into a predictable, composable, and vibrant economy with AI native stablecoins.
Key components of Maitrix:
CDP: Users deposit AI tokens and their derivative assets (liquid staking or staked AI tokens) through CDP, thereby minting and burning AI USD;
Stablecoin Launchpad: AI projects can create their own AI stablecoins using their native tokens and derivatives.
Curve War ve(3, 3) incentives: ve governance of MAITRIX tokens, emission redirection, and bribery mechanisms similar to ve(3, 3)
StableSwap DEX: Enables trading between various AI USD tokens.
Supported AI dollar assets (so far)
Aethir USD (AUSD) - a stable computing power payment method
Vana USD (VanaUSD) — A data-driven stablecoin
Virtual USD (vUSD)
ai16z USD (ai16z USD)
0G USD (0 USD)
Nillion USD
There are more partners in negotiation.
Currently, there are not many detailed documents regarding the use cases of each AI stablecoin. Once their white papers are released, I will provide a detailed introduction to the technical aspects. However, at present, Maitrix is the only team building this layer for AI projects and has already established partnerships with top AI ecosystems.
Maitrix is currently gaining attention on the test network. The public mainnet is about to go live.
The Second Challenge
With the continuous acceleration of AI development and the expansion of its application scope, the demand for computing power resources is also increasing. Data centers and cloud operators need to plan their expansion in advance to meet future demands.
Enterprise-level GPUs (such as NVIDIA's H100 and H200) are usually expensive and require a significant amount of funding.
Traditional financing methods, such as bank loans or equity investments, are often slow and complex, resulting in data centers being unable to quickly scale to meet demand. This is where the next two AI projects, Gaib and USDAI, focus.
addressing "demand issue" type projects
The first project is Gaib.
GAIB AiFi - The first economic layer of AI and computing power. Gaib tokenizes the future cash flow of GPUs to help data centers efficiently raise funds while providing investors with yield assets backed by real assets (GPUs).
Its working principle is basically:
Cloud/Data Centers will package future GPU cash flows into financial products;
These cash flows are tokenized on a 6-12 month cycle;
Investors purchase these tokens and start receiving regular rewards;
They call this AI synthetic dollar "AID."
Each AID token is backed by a GPU financing trading portfolio and treasury bonds or other liquid asset reserves.
The expected floating yield APY is around 40%, which largely depends on the portfolio of GPU trading, whether it is debt financing or equity trading (with equity accounting for over 60-80%, while the annual yield of debt is between 10-20%).
So far, they have accumulated approximately $22 million in TVL incentive deposits, which exist in the form of "Spice" points, and investors will be entitled to future airdrop rewards.
In addition, Gaib has also partnered with Aethir and conducted its first GPU tokenization pilot earlier this year. This pilot is just the GPU tokenization/slicing, as part of its roadmap, expanding to the GPU-supported stablecoin "AID."
The second project is USD.AI.
USDAI is a yield-bearing synthetic stablecoin supported by RWA, launched by Permian Labs. It is somewhat similar to Gaib, but also different. USDAI is a stablecoin backed by hardware assets (such as GPUs, telecommunications equipment, solar panels) as collateral, and its operation falls under debt financing transactions, where borrowers (asset owners) obtain loans from USDAI, pay interest, and the interest income belongs to USDAI token holders.
Behind Permian Labs is metastreet, a top structured credit market that offers products such as NFT-backed loans, structured credit for illiquid assets/risk-weighted assets (watches, artworks), and NFT yield rights transfer similar to Pendle (PT YT).
USDAI is not yet live, but its target yield is an APY of 15-25%. The asset portfolio is divided into three phases, from 100% treasury bonds to 100% hard assets. USDAI uses CALIBER, a system that simplifies the lending/issuance process and complies with the legal standards for putting GPUs on-chain.
Odaily Note: CALIBER: Collateralized Asset Ledger: Insurance, Bailment, Evaluation, Redemption. This system is based on Section 7 of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) in the United States, transforming real-world assets (such as infrastructure) into legally compliant collateral for on-chain financing through asset tokenization and legal frameworks.
To clarify the distinction, USDAI focuses on debt, while the asset types are more diverse. With its CALIBER model, they can cover various use cases (regardless of where the demand is), whereas Gaib is more focused on equity, offering a higher expected return.
You can fill out the form to apply to become an early user, and USDAI will provide additional rewards for early participants.
Other AI-related Stablecoin Products
Almanak recently launched alUSD, an ERC-7540 version token (an extension of ERC-4626), which is a tokenized AI yield optimization strategy, designed to maximize risk-adjusted returns on stablecoin investments in Aave, Compound, Curve, Yearn, and more.
The Almanak team will soon launch a rewards program to guide liquidity and continue expanding the composability of DeFi, allowing people to use alUSD as collateral or to recycle it to maximize returns.
AIxFI project, a vault that can automatically deploy USDC in DeFi protocols. Initially based on rules, it will gradually introduce AI for decision-making. Launching this month on Virtuals Protocol.
Future Trends
We are likely to see the rise of another Ethena project focused on leveraging GPUs to bring high yields for stablecoins. More importantly, how they manage their 1:1 dollar peg and ensure that the price can return to 1 dollar in critical situations.
In the future, we will see more tokenized AI strategies emerging. We have already witnessed that AI can better optimize returns when considering gas fees, rebalancing costs, slippage, and other dynamic variables. Imagine tokenizing these strategies into highly composable "vaults," which can serve as collateral and be reused, achieving 5-10 times leveraged returns.
As participants like Maitrix build stablecoin infrastructure for top-tier AI ecosystems, we will begin to see an increase in Web3 AI liquidity. More AI value will start to become more composable and flow into DeFi, thereby enhancing the overall value appreciation of the Web3 ecosystem.
Although these teams are very interesting, when it comes to stablecoins, risk/pegging management/redeem/settlement mechanisms are crucial. Conduct a risk assessment before deciding to invest.
The content is for reference only, not a solicitation or offer. No investment, tax, or legal advice provided. See Disclaimer for more risks disclosure.
AI + Decentralized Finance is poised for takeoff, is AI + stablecoin feasible?
*Original author: *0x Jeff
Compiled by｜Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)
Translator｜CryptoLeo（@LeoAndCrypto）
Editor’s note: The year 2025 is set to be the year of the rise of stablecoins. The United States has introduced the "GENIUS Act," and South Korea's new president Lee Jae-myung is also fulfilling his campaign promise to allow local companies to issue stablecoins. At both national and corporate levels, with Standard Chartered Bank and Huakong leading the way, and followed by JD.com and Ant Group, domestic and international corporate giants are exploring the issuance of various stablecoins.
Crypto AI researcher Jeff published an analysis of the existing problems in current crypto + AI projects, which are too "pro-AI and anti-crypto," making it difficult for them to establish a foothold in DeFi. In addition, Jeff listed some noteworthy AI + stablecoin projects, translated by Odaily Planet Daily as follows.
Stablecoins are one of the most important infrastructures created for cryptocurrencies. Without stablecoins, we would not have stable units of currency for investors to allocate funds (which would make it very difficult to build CEXs, DEXs, Perps, money markets, and any other verticals).
Stablecoins are rapidly gaining popularity — from 2023 to 2025, the total supply, trading volume, and circulation velocity (the frequency of stablecoin transactions) are expected to surge, especially in terms of payments and cross-border transactions.
In addition, we have seen clearer regulatory guidelines and further adoption of institutional stablecoins, such as Stripe launching stablecoin financial accounts in 101 countries, Société Générale introducing a dollar-backed stablecoin, major banks (Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Citibank, Wells Fargo) exploring the joint issuance of stablecoins, and large enterprises exploring stablecoin payment options to reduce transaction fees with Visa and Mastercard, etc.
Recently, the IPO of CRCL (Circle) has also sparked a stablecoin craze, attracting more stakeholders. We see further adoption of TradFi while also witnessing some stablecoin innovations emerging in the field of artificial intelligence, aimed at addressing the challenges faced by service providers and users in Web3 artificial intelligence.
The First Challenge
Although AI teams often design AI tokens as a key part of the AI ecosystem (payments, governance, utilities), they usually invest fewer resources in DeFi and allocate more resources to AI products.
Example:
Although both of these examples can be seen as flywheels for AI tokens, the volatility caused by their design may also deter some key participants from getting involved. (BTW, these 3 examples are relatively excellent, but there are also many AI teams that have done quite poorly in token design, especially some fair launch teams.)
The increase in the number of tokens in the market, coupled with suboptimal design, has resulted in low liquidity, making it difficult to build the Lego blocks of DeFi.
Project to address the issue of "uneven resource allocation"
MAITRIX—AI Stablecoin Layer
Maitrix has launched an over-collateralized AI native stablecoin (AI USD) tailored for each independent ecosystem, essentially transforming the unstable (but high-yielding) AI economy into a predictable, composable, and vibrant economy with AI native stablecoins.
Key components of Maitrix:
CDP: Users deposit AI tokens and their derivative assets (liquid staking or staked AI tokens) through CDP, thereby minting and burning AI USD;
Stablecoin Launchpad: AI projects can create their own AI stablecoins using their native tokens and derivatives.
Curve War ve(3, 3) incentives: ve governance of MAITRIX tokens, emission redirection, and bribery mechanisms similar to ve(3, 3)
StableSwap DEX: Enables trading between various AI USD tokens.
Supported AI dollar assets (so far)
There are more partners in negotiation.
Currently, there are not many detailed documents regarding the use cases of each AI stablecoin. Once their white papers are released, I will provide a detailed introduction to the technical aspects. However, at present, Maitrix is the only team building this layer for AI projects and has already established partnerships with top AI ecosystems.
Maitrix is currently gaining attention on the test network. The public mainnet is about to go live.
The Second Challenge
With the continuous acceleration of AI development and the expansion of its application scope, the demand for computing power resources is also increasing. Data centers and cloud operators need to plan their expansion in advance to meet future demands.
Enterprise-level GPUs (such as NVIDIA's H100 and H200) are usually expensive and require a significant amount of funding.
Traditional financing methods, such as bank loans or equity investments, are often slow and complex, resulting in data centers being unable to quickly scale to meet demand. This is where the next two AI projects, Gaib and USDAI, focus.
addressing "demand issue" type projects
The first project is Gaib.
GAIB AiFi - The first economic layer of AI and computing power. Gaib tokenizes the future cash flow of GPUs to help data centers efficiently raise funds while providing investors with yield assets backed by real assets (GPUs).
Its working principle is basically:
Each AID token is backed by a GPU financing trading portfolio and treasury bonds or other liquid asset reserves.
The expected floating yield APY is around 40%, which largely depends on the portfolio of GPU trading, whether it is debt financing or equity trading (with equity accounting for over 60-80%, while the annual yield of debt is between 10-20%).
So far, they have accumulated approximately $22 million in TVL incentive deposits, which exist in the form of "Spice" points, and investors will be entitled to future airdrop rewards.
In addition, Gaib has also partnered with Aethir and conducted its first GPU tokenization pilot earlier this year. This pilot is just the GPU tokenization/slicing, as part of its roadmap, expanding to the GPU-supported stablecoin "AID."
The second project is USD.AI.
USDAI is a yield-bearing synthetic stablecoin supported by RWA, launched by Permian Labs. It is somewhat similar to Gaib, but also different. USDAI is a stablecoin backed by hardware assets (such as GPUs, telecommunications equipment, solar panels) as collateral, and its operation falls under debt financing transactions, where borrowers (asset owners) obtain loans from USDAI, pay interest, and the interest income belongs to USDAI token holders.
Behind Permian Labs is metastreet, a top structured credit market that offers products such as NFT-backed loans, structured credit for illiquid assets/risk-weighted assets (watches, artworks), and NFT yield rights transfer similar to Pendle (PT YT).
USDAI is not yet live, but its target yield is an APY of 15-25%. The asset portfolio is divided into three phases, from 100% treasury bonds to 100% hard assets. USDAI uses CALIBER, a system that simplifies the lending/issuance process and complies with the legal standards for putting GPUs on-chain.
Odaily Note: CALIBER: Collateralized Asset Ledger: Insurance, Bailment, Evaluation, Redemption. This system is based on Section 7 of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) in the United States, transforming real-world assets (such as infrastructure) into legally compliant collateral for on-chain financing through asset tokenization and legal frameworks.
To clarify the distinction, USDAI focuses on debt, while the asset types are more diverse. With its CALIBER model, they can cover various use cases (regardless of where the demand is), whereas Gaib is more focused on equity, offering a higher expected return.
You can fill out the form to apply to become an early user, and USDAI will provide additional rewards for early participants.
Other AI-related Stablecoin Products
Almanak recently launched alUSD, an ERC-7540 version token (an extension of ERC-4626), which is a tokenized AI yield optimization strategy, designed to maximize risk-adjusted returns on stablecoin investments in Aave, Compound, Curve, Yearn, and more.
The Almanak team will soon launch a rewards program to guide liquidity and continue expanding the composability of DeFi, allowing people to use alUSD as collateral or to recycle it to maximize returns.
AIxFI project, a vault that can automatically deploy USDC in DeFi protocols. Initially based on rules, it will gradually introduce AI for decision-making. Launching this month on Virtuals Protocol.
Future Trends
We are likely to see the rise of another Ethena project focused on leveraging GPUs to bring high yields for stablecoins. More importantly, how they manage their 1:1 dollar peg and ensure that the price can return to 1 dollar in critical situations.
In the future, we will see more tokenized AI strategies emerging. We have already witnessed that AI can better optimize returns when considering gas fees, rebalancing costs, slippage, and other dynamic variables. Imagine tokenizing these strategies into highly composable "vaults," which can serve as collateral and be reused, achieving 5-10 times leveraged returns.
As participants like Maitrix build stablecoin infrastructure for top-tier AI ecosystems, we will begin to see an increase in Web3 AI liquidity. More AI value will start to become more composable and flow into DeFi, thereby enhancing the overall value appreciation of the Web3 ecosystem.
Although these teams are very interesting, when it comes to stablecoins, risk/pegging management/redeem/settlement mechanisms are crucial. Conduct a risk assessment before deciding to invest.