Nansen's Alex Svanevik says AI agents will dominate trading within two years as the firm pivots to execution, with $500M in volume and growing non-crypto asset trading.
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Alex Svanevik, chief executive of the blockchain analytics firm Nansen, expects AI trading agents to outnumber and outperform human traders within roughly two years. The prediction is driving a strategic pivot at the company he co-founded, which is shifting from data insights toward direct trade execution.
Speaking on a daily program, Svanevik laid out the ambition in plain terms: let agents handle trading of every asset class entirely on-chain. That requires moving from analysis tools to execution capabilities, expanding beyond cryptocurrencies into all asset types, and handing position selection from humans to autonomous systems.
Nansen has already made progress. Since rolling out trading features, the platform has processed just over $500 million in volume. Activity is increasingly diversified. Roughly ten of the top 15 perpetual futures contracts by volume on the service involve non-crypto assets, including SpaceX shares, the S&P 500, gold, silver, crude oil and Brent crude. The firm also recently added Robinhood support, with trading expected to go live shortly.
Svanevik argues that agents hold structural advantages over typical retail participants. He described human traders as often "quite sheep-like," crowding into identical positions. Agents, drawing on a wider range of inputs, models and tools, generate greater diversity in approaches.
That adaptability creates vulnerabilities. Because the systems rely on inference rather than hardcoded rules, their data feeds can be contaminated or deliberately manipulated. Nansen is working to address these exposure risks before releasing more independent agent features. One internal agent produced only $23 in gains while incurring $700 in inference expenses, illustrating the early-stage cost imbalance.
Still, the company points to a key differentiator: more than 500 million labeled blockchain addresses compiled over six years. This dataset enables agents to identify on-chain activity that would otherwise remain hidden.
In Svanevik's view, centralized exchanges face obstacles in adapting. Licensing constraints and established, profitable business models limit their flexibility with agent-based systems.
Nansen is taking a measured approach itself, withholding fully autonomous agents until they complete backtesting and simulated trading rather than releasing incomplete tools. Svanevik expects meaningful performance edges to emerge in the coming months, even as the broader shift toward agents dominating trading activity is projected within two years. The remarks point to a wider evolution in markets, where on-chain transparency combines with machine-driven decision-making across traditional and digital assets. The prediction echoes similar forecasts from other crypto executives, including Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, who has said AI agents will eventually outnumber human crypto users.
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