Why did Almanak rise to prominence in a sluggish market? A deep dive into the ambitions and path of an AI-driven quantitative trading team.

Author: Lao Bai

During my time at OKX Ventures in the middle of this year, project discussions weren't as frequent as in 2023-2024, mainly because the primary market was much cooler than in the previous two years. However, this had its advantages: I could discuss each project in more detail and had more time for due diligence and research. We could have more in-depth discussions.

Almanak left a deep impression on me. The CEO, a guy I knew from first glance, seemed like a tech enthusiast, a feeling reinforced after our hour-long conversation. To research their products, we not only thoroughly tested Almanak but also tried out several of their competitors. I even deposited a few thousand USDT into Almanak's Vault to track my earnings. If I hadn't seen the latest news from Almanak Games, I probably would have forgotten I still had some money in there…

Okay, let's get back to the main topic. What does this project do? Look at its Twitter description: "Your personal AI quant team."

This goes a step further than a regular AI agent that helps you yield or trade cryptocurrencies; I'll build you a quantitative trading team composed of AI agents.

Even cooler is that you can think of Almanak as a Cursor in the DeFi world. No coding knowledge is required; you can use Vibe Coding, through the AI Agent Swarm, to build, test, and deploy institutional-grade coded financial strategies. In other words, you can command this AI-powered quantitative team to build quantitative strategies according to your requirements. You give the requirements, and the agent automatically senses, makes decisions, backtests, and executes…

This is why Almanak far surpasses other companies in Agent Yield's website rankings across all metrics, with its TVL exceeding 100 million in just a few months, leaving its competitors several times larger.

At the time, my investment team and I not only tried Almanak, but also several competing products such as Hey Anon, Griffin, and Giza. Indeed, Almanak was an order of magnitude superior in terms of product functionality and complexity. Its 18 agents were responsible for strategy design, auditing, alpha discovery, and, more importantly, backtesting and optimization. They used historical simulations and stress tests to determine approximate returns and potential drawdowns—something that typical "de-agent" projects or teams simply couldn't achieve.

This likely explains why Almanak was able to secure over ten million dollars in investment from top VCs like Delphi, HashKey, Bankless Ventures, RockawayX, and Shima, and why its Legion IPO in August was oversubscribed by 400% despite an extremely cold market.

The project is innovative not only in its product but also in its TGE (Treasure Token Offering). Many projects create a bunch of fake metrics, fake interactions, and fake communities before TGE, desperately trying to secure airdrops before rushing to list and release their tokens. Almanak, in addition to prioritizing product development, also focuses on a completely transparent design, community co-creation, and high-participation incentives. This avoids hidden lock-up periods and unpredictable changes.

The upcoming Almanak Games (12/11–1/31) is an on-chain competition designed to discover real users and communities – users can earn rewards for trading, holding, LP, and deploying strategies on $ALMANAK.

- Rewards include: Token rewards (1.5%–3% Supply)

Stablecoin rewards (unlocked with community participation, the amount is substantial, including up to $1 million in stablecoin rewards).

You can also receive Boost if you commit to holding the position until the end of 2025.

Of course, the project is still in its early stages. The richness of the strategies and data verification still need more time to be tested by the market. However, judging from the functions provided and the framework built so far, it should only be a matter of time before a powerful "on-chain quantitative strategy" is developed. We look forward to the rise of "Agent Defi Summer"!