2025 New Blueprint for Decentralized Finance: From Smart account to AI Agent

Author: Lukas Schor Source: cryptoslate Translation: Shanooba, Golden Finance

Here is a guest post by Safe co-founder Lukas Schor.

2024 is a crucial year for DeFi. The actual application of smart accounts has been put into use. Milestones in major infrastructure such as chain abstraction, coupled with positive market sentiment and sustained growth, will bring the next year back to fundamentals. This means that products will bring real value to users, truly revolutionizing the digital world. Here are some expected developments in 2025:

1. At least 20% of Ethereum users will rely on smart accounts supporting EIP-7702.

Only in the first quarter of 2024, the leakage of private keys has caused a loss of over 2.39 billion US dollars to the industry. Smart accounts are expected to bring a more secure and customizable user experience, but to be widely adopted, a comprehensive reform of the existing DeFi infrastructure is needed. Since the introduction of the ERC-4337 standard in March 2023, the adoption of smart accounts has been relatively slow. Although the adoption of smart accounts has increased in 2024, they are by no means ubiquitous.

The Ethereum Pectra upgrade scheduled for 2025 includes EIP-7702, a new standard that allows external owned accounts (EOAs) to directly execute smart contract code from their addresses, providing some smart account functionality for EOA. With this standard, private keys can fully control the account, bringing security risks and limiting account recovery. Nevertheless, as the industry continues to build smart account infrastructure, EIP-7702 will play a crucial role in the transition period.

User demand for greater accessibility, security, and efficiency will drive adoption, which is why we anticipate that by 2025, at least 20% of Ethereum users will transition to smart accounts supporting EIP-7702.

2. Half of DeFi users will browse multiple blockchains through a single unified interface

If we want to see mainstream adoption in the next five years, we need to abstract blockchain technology from the user experience. Smart accounts are the ideal foundation for abstracting the chain. Due to their programmable nature, smart accounts can directly embed chain abstractions into users’ accounts, allowing them to avoid the burden of infrastructure overload.

Safe is actively seeking solutions. Safenet will be launched this year. We envision an account where users can view all assets from any chain and easily complete cross-chain transactions. Currently, the Safe account is the pillar of DeFi, storing approximately 7.6% of all USDC, 9.4% of CryptoPunks, and over approximately $100 billion in digital assets.

Secure accounts support applications such as Fileverse (a decentralized competitor of GSuite), oSnap (an on-chain governance tool), and Bulla Banker (a Web3 protocol for invoicing and payments with cryptocurrencies, without the need for a bank). Introducing chain abstraction into smart accounts (simplifying DeFi at the entry point) will unlock immense potential for decentralized economies.

3. AI-powered agents will execute at least 20% of the on-chain DeFi trading volume.

2025 will be the year of the integration of AI agents and smart accounts. Imagine an tireless AI entity working day and night to manage your cryptocurrency investment portfolio. Now imagine smart accounts enhancing AI agents, allowing users to set budget limits and include security measures such as account recovery. This revolution has already begun - over half* of secure* transactions are conducted on Olas’ Gnosis Chain every month, a decentralized network driven by autonomous agents.

The integration of AI agents and intelligent accounts will go beyond autonomous trading. Web3 games will undergo changes, with agents performing tasks such as resource collection, production, and combat to provide players with a more attractive, dynamic, and personalized experience. In the prediction market, AI agents will analyze a large amount of data, significantly reducing the entry barriers for ordinary users. By 2025, intelligent accounts will amplify the work of autonomous agents, reshaping DeFi and pushing decentralized economy towards the world.

4. The three major global financial institutions will integrate cross-border settlements based on stablecoins

Traditional financial institutions worldwide are striving to catch up. In the second quarter of 2024, Visa processed transactions worth $3.9 trillion, only half the 11 billion stablecoin transactions (worth $8.5 trillion) during the same period. For users seeking cheaper remittance methods, using stablecoins for cross-border payments and remittances is rapidly becoming their preferred choice.

All of this indicates that global financial institutions will join in. With the emergence of killer use cases in the remittance and payment fields, as well as the favorable development of the regulatory environment by 2025, we will see blockchain truly integrated into the traditional financial system.

5. 10% of the overall DeFi liquidity will seamlessly flow between three or more ecosystems based on zero-knowledge interoperability

Cross-chain interoperability requires smooth data transmission and communication. Zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) solves the core issues of interoperability: privacy and security. Whether through ZK native protocols or integration, ZK can break information silos, allowing users and protocols to exchange data and verify transactions in a maximally private manner.

Chainlink established a strategic partnership with *Safe last year and is currently exploring the *DECO solution based on zero-knowledge proofs, aiming to enhance the privacy and security of users, protocols, and institutions seeking to utilize oracles. With many projects turning towards ZK interoperability tools, we expect this solution to have a significant impact on the industry by the end of 2025.

Looking to the Future

Safe is pleased to have been involved in the movement to unlock digital ownership and its related matters for the past five years. Next year, Chain Abstract will enable us to overcome the technical challenges of blockchain while still benefiting from decentralization.

The progress of autonomous AI agents combined with intelligent account infrastructure will break down trading barriers and unleash new opportunities for wealth creation. Guided by the mission of providing users with genuine products and value, the industry will witness unprecedented levels of on-chain activity. The future is bright.