Defi OS for AI Agents

This edition unpacks how vaults, intents, and strategy tokens are powering the rise of AI-driven finance on-chain.

Picture this: an on-chain NFT auction goes live and an unseen agent places the bids. It taps a vault for funds, hedges ETH risk with a futures position, rolls fixed yield, pays its own gas, all without a human hand. It’s a fully autonomous capital loop: the code deploys funds, manages risk, and compounds yield.

But there’s a catch. None of this scales safely unless there’s a settlement layer, a foundation, where agents can park liquidity, settle trades, roll positions, and account for value as natively as humans do with wallets and ledgers.

That layer isn’t a gimmick. It’s emerging from three converging primitives—vaults (ERC-4626) as standardized balance sheets where agents can park, earn, and account for capital; strategy tokens as modular wrappers that encode complex yield logic into a single asset agents can hold or trade; and account abstraction plus intents as the coordination layer that lets agents act with goals, not low-level calls. Together, they solve custody, capital deployment, and execution—building a system where liquidity, policy, and automation can operate machine-to-machine.

Together, they form the financial operating system for autonomous intelligence, a DeFi-native backend where machines earn, deploy, and rebalance capital across protocols without waiting for humans. In short, we’re entering the age of agent-native finance.

A settlement layer is the financial foundation that lets autonomous software hold, move, and account for value safely onchain. Think of it as the banking system for AI, where agents earn yield, settle trades, and build onchain histories without relying on humans or centralized platforms. 

To see how it works, let’s look at its key components and how they combine into a unified system of agentic finance.

> custody & identity

For an agent to function independently, it needs a programmable identity: more than just a static wallet. Smart-contract accounts (ERC-4337) enable that. They enforce spending rules, sponsor gas, rotate keys, and bundle multiple actions into one transaction. In short, a wallet becomes an accountable, upgradeable identity.

> execution intents

Humans sign transactions; agents express intents. An intent could read: “swap this,” “bridge that,” “roll yield,” or “borrow stables.” Protocols like Across and LI.FI let off-chain solvers compete for best execution and then settle on-chain with proofs. This UX shift is critical. For agents, it means outcome-based workflows replace manual steps. An agent doesn’t click buttons, it sets goals, delegates routing, and settles verifiably.

> balance-sheet layer

Agents still need somewhere to park and manage funds. That’s where ERC-4626 vaults come in. They standardize deposits, withdrawals, and accounting, effectively serving as the balance sheets of autonomous capital. Vaults let agents allocate liquidity, earn yield, and report value transparently.

> putting it all together

Agent (4337 smart account) → Intent → Solver → Execution (via 4337 validation) → Settlement (4626 vaults) → Final accounting state

This is the emerging financial OS for AI, a programmable stack where liquidity, logic, and settlement all speak the same language.

AI agents need a financial home; a programmable space where they can store, deploy, and account for value without human intervention. Vaults are that home. They turn on-chain intelligence into autonomous capital management.

> composable accounting

Vaults built on ERC-4626 standardize how “shares” and “assets” are measured across protocols. This makes accounting predictable and interoperable, whether an agent is farming yield, hedging exposure, or lending stablecoins.âtvUSDC integrates directly with this standard—exposing NAV, yield curves, and position state in a format that’s machine-readable and cross-protocol compatible.

> latency-tolerant liquidity

Agents don’t have infinite gas budgets or time to subdivide trades. Strategy vaults bundle multiple routes (swaps, bridges, or lending legs) into one efficient path, minimizing on-chain steps and cost. Combined with account abstraction, this allows batching and atomic settlement which is ideal for agents optimizing execution under constraints. âtvUSDC routes capital dynamically across Aave, Compound, and soon Morpho—giving agents a single entry point for stablecoin yield that adapts in real time, without manual intervention. âtvUSDC offers agents a ready-made yield path—dynamically routing stablecoin liquidity across Aave, Compound, and Morpho—so agents can deposit once and optimize execution without building custom routing logic. 

> deterministic lifecycle

Unlike ad-hoc DeFi positions, strategy tokens issued by vaults encode roll schedules, maturities, and exit rules. That predictable lifecycle makes coordination feasible, contract-level SLAs between agents. Live protocols like Pendle already use this logic. On Pendle, agents can integrate âtvUSDC PTs and YTs into fixed-yield schedules or hedged strategies—allowing them to plan, roll, or exit positions on-chain with time-aware logic.

> observability

Every deposit, withdrawal, and yield update emits standardized events. This transparency means agent performance, execution cost, and risk exposure can be monitored on-chain. This is essential for debugging, compliance, and trust in multi-agent ecosystems. Agents interfacing with âtvUSDC can monitor real-time vault activity, track rebalance outcomes, or trigger policy actions—all via on-chain event streams and verifiable execution data.

> the data story

Vaults built on ERC-4626 are already acknowledged as the underlying layer for vault architecture.  While a full ecosystem figure is elusive, this recognition signals that standardized vaults are shifting from niche to infrastructure.

In short, vaults give agents everything they need right from custody and accounting, to liquidity routing, and auditability, all in code. That’s why they’re becoming the financial backend of the agentic economy. Agents using âtvUSDC are plugging into a modular backend designed for composability, observability, and capital programmability at scale.

In agentic DeFi, Pendle supplies the yield infrastructure that makes autonomous strategies viable. It tokenizes yield by splitting any yield-bearing asset into Principal Tokens (PTs) and Yield Tokens (YTs). PTs lock in a fixed principal value at maturity, while YTs expose the floating yield. For agents, that matters. Predictable cash flows enable automation; isolated yield exposure allows programmable hedges or directional bets.

On Pendle’s AMM, agents can buy discounted PTs for fixed-yield exposure, trade or farm YTs for variable returns or points strategies, and roll positions before maturity via secondary liquidity. Each position has a defined lifecycle: deposit, accrue, roll, and settle—making it ideal for code-driven execution.

Pendle recently surpassed $7 billion in TVL. That scale matters. It signals that tokenized yield markets aren’t speculative—they’re liquid, composable, and ready for agent-native use.

At aarnâ, this design space is being integrated into âTARS—a Tokenized Autonomous Reward Strategy system that acts as an onchain agent for capital and coordination. Deployed as a smart contract vault, âTARS serves as a programmable AI interface for users to explore DeFi strategies, deposit seamlessly across aarnâ’s vaults, and learn interactively through live execution flows. It processes yield opportunities using data signals from Moralis and Coingecko MCP servers, optimizing allocations through structured, observable policy logic.

Soon, âTARS will integrate âtvPTmax, a fixed-yield agentic vault designed to allocate into Pendle’s PT markets with zero manual management. Powered by âTARS, âtvPTmax rotates across PT tranches in real time—selecting optimal tenors, adjusting for market-wide carry, and managing redemption and slippage—all fully onchain and instantly withdrawable. Target yields in the current environment range between 12–14% USDC, with transparency and automation as first principles.

In short, Pendle provides the primitives; aarnâ is building the agent infrastructure that lets those primitives think, rotate, and settle on their own.

In an economy run by agents, strategy tokens operate like one-line treasuries. An agent deposits capital once and receives a token that represents ownership in a continuously managed, diversified strategy. The complexity of yield aggregation and rebalancing is hidden behind a single token.

Each strategy token rides on a 4626-compliant vault, so accounting is predictable and transparent. Agents do not need bespoke interfaces or adapters.

Through compatibility with 4337 smart accounts, strategy tokens can embed policy hooks such as access rules, spending limits, and whitelisted actions.

Agents can enter and exit through intent-based flows, submitting goals off-chain, letting solvers optimize execution, and finalizing settlement on-chain through systems like Across.

Each token follows a lifecycle that includes roll schedules, redemption windows, and slippage controls inspired by Pendle’s fixed-yield models.

In essence, strategy tokens turn complex portfolio logic into a simple primitive. They become the capital sinks where autonomous liquidity gathers, compounds, and rebalances automatically.

If vaults are the financial backend for AI, âTARS is the intelligence layer that gives that backend purpose.

Built by aarnâ, âTARS (aarnâ Tokenized Autonomous Rewards Strategies) is a multi-agent system that deploys funds into âarna vaults and works intelligently and dynamically to allocate capital across vaults, continuously rebalancing positions through data-driven reasoning and on-chain optimization. It orchestrates multiple specialized agents-each responsible for yield curation, execution, and liquidity-through a shared reasoning and policy framework.

âtvPTmax(launching soon) is an ERC-4626 vault designed to capture the best fixed yields(12-14% APY) available across Pendle’s PTs. It allocates USDC across a dynamic ladder of tranches, selecting pools that offer the most attractive combination of APY, duration, and liquidity depth with built in risk controls

Over this vault sits âTARS, the agentic coordination layer that manages how âtvPTmax and other aarnâ vaults deploy, rotate, and manage liquidity.

The Yield Curation Agent constantly analyzes Pendle PT markets, evaluating tenor ladders, implied APYs, and liquidity depth across pools. It identifies tranches where fixed yield, discount, and duration align with protocol-defined parameters for risk-adjusted carry. Once shortlisted, it updates allocation routes for each vault under management, allowing âTARS to continuously optimize for stable, capital-efficient returns.

The Execution Agent converts those allocations into on-chain actions. It manages deposits, redemptions, and rotations between PT tranches, dynamically sequencing transactions to minimize slippage and gas costs. During rollovers, it handles expiry transitions—redeeming matured PTs, swapping yields, and re-entering new tranches with minimal idle capital exposure.

At the core, a graph-based orchestration layer links these agents through a dependency-aware topology—mapping relationships between yield curves, vault liquidity, and systemic risk variables. This allows âTARS to maintain consistent capital behavior even as individual market conditions fluctuate.

Externally, âTARS integrates seamlessly with ERC-4626 vaults; internally, it operates as the autonomous brain of aarnâ’s capital network—turning passive liquidity into intelligent, policy-driven capital flow.

The emerging agentic finance stack is modular. Builders and researchers can think of it as three interconnected planes: data, control, and settlement, stitched via open standards.

> wallets / identity: Smart accounts (ERC-4337) give agents persistent, programmable identity.

> policy engine: Smart-account policies define what an agent can do, how much risk it carries, and what counterparties it touches.

> intent rails: Execution flows through intent-based solvers like UniswapX, CoW, or Across, enabling agents to express goals, competitors vie for best route, and settlement happens on-chain.

> settlement & accounting: ERC-4626 vaults serve as the canonicalvalue layer. Strategy tokens aggregate multiple vaults into higher-order capital primitives.

> observability: On-chain events, NAV oracles, and execution receipts give human and machine overseers insight into system health and agent behavior.

A new dimension now layers in: the proposed ERC‑8004 “trustless agent” standard, designed to enable agents to discover, verify and transact with each other across organisational boundaries. With ERC‑8004, agents are no longer isolated endpoints—they can be registered (identity registry), rated (reputation registry), and validated (validation registry) before interacting in capital flows. That matters for governance and coordination: when one agent routes liquidity through a vault, or triggers a strategy token roll, the ecosystem can now trace which agent, with what credential, for what purpose.

As agents start to move real capital, risk management becomes infrastructure, not an afterthought. The same autonomy that enables efficiency can also amplify small errors or misaligned incentives. Builders need to treat safety and governance as first-class design layers.

> contract & integration risk: Vaults must ensure correct rounding, re-entrancy protections, and accurate fee math (especially in ERC-4626 implementations).

> execution risk: Solvers introduce coordination complexity. Watch for coalition behavior, MEV leakage; batch or Dutch auctions may help mitigate.

> policy risk: Mis-scoped agent permissions or overly broad abilities can cause unintended exposures. Smart-account policies and guardrails are essential.

> market risk: PT market discount dynamics, maturity cliffs, and roll liquidity are real factors to model. 

> operational risk: Agents must be monitored, with circuit-breakers and transparent incident playbooks required for reliability (see agent coordination frameworks).

Agentic finance brings automation, but it also brings new forms of accountability. Governance, policy scope, auditability, and composability become mission-critical.

DeFi is moving into its agentic phase where onchain capital allocates, hedges, and settles without waiting for human signatures. The primitives are already live: ERC-4337 smart accounts give agents identity; intent rails like CoW, UniswapX, Across turn execution into goals; Pendle’s PT/YT markets teach code to reason about time and yield; ERC-4626 vaults standardize accounting so liquidity flows seamlessly between strategies.

Together these components form the backbone of agent-native finance, a world where liquidity isn’t just composable, but also autonomous.

At aarnâ, the vision is live through âTARS, a multi-agent vault system that curates yield, rolls maturities, and optimises capital flow programmatically. Builders experimenting with agentic finance can look to âTARS as a live reference for how liquidity, logic, and settlement begin to think together. 

Cardano has begun integrating the x402 payment standard from Coinbase to enable AI agents to execute transactions autonomously. Charles Hoskinson called the move “very big,” despite Cardano’s modest DeFi TVL of around $290 m.

Agents using Coinbase’s x402 payment protocol surged by 4,300% in transactions last week, jumping to around 957,000 payments, as AI software increasingly automates on-chain commerce.

The Ethereum Foundation has launched the dAI Team, a new unit focused on making Ethereum the base layer for the AI economy. The group will develop ERC-8004, a proposed trust standard giving AI agents verifiable on-chain identities and reputation systems for secure, decentralized coordination.

top DeFi tweets

AI agents are back in play. @milesdeutscher says the next leg of the AI x crypto wave is forming, powered by x402, a “wallet for the internet” that lets sites get paid instantly. Think agent economies with real product-market fit this time.

@joel_john95 argues that prediction markets, stablecoins, and agentic finance are converging to redefine how the web monetizes itself — replacing ad-driven models with on-chain economic coordination.

@Cointelegraph reports over 300 TradFi, DeFi, and regulatory leaders gathered in Abu Dhabi for Agentic, hosted by @MANTRA_Chain and @InveniamIO, to discuss how tokenized assets, verified data, and clear rules could rebuild finance’s base layer, this time, on-chain.

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