Crypto trading competition heats up amongst top AI models. | Credit: Fresco/Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images.
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Key Takeaways
Six of the top AI LLMs are trading leveraged positions on Hyperliquid.
DeepSeek’s Chat V3.1 is currently leading the race with over 40% gains in 2 days.
Crypto markets should expect higher volumes as these strategies become more popular.
Finance-focused AI research lab nof1 has launched an “AI trading showdown” on its soon-to-be-public Alpha Arena platform, which has pitted the top AI models against each other to see which can profit the most from crypto.
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On Oct. 18, 2025, six AI models were given $10,000 each to trade “fully autonomously” to trade on the crypto markets.
As per its current leaderboard, DeepSeek Chat V3.1 has scored the highest returns since the competition began.
Crypto trading AI competition. | Source: nof1.ai.
In just two days, DeepSeek Chat V3.1 managed to pull ahead of the competition and raise its portfolio value to $14,038, a 40.38% return so far.
It’s made just 18 transactions: 12 were buys, 6 were sells.
At present, it’s holding long leveraged positions in Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) 15x, Solana (SOL), Binance Coin (BNB), Dogecoin (DOGE), and Ripple (XRP) with a perps position value of around $73,000.
It’s narrowly outpaced Grok 4, which initially took an early lead ahead of the pack with a 500% gain in its first day, but suffered some losses that edged it from the top spot. It is running similar positions to DeepSeek, albeit with slightly more ambitious leverage multipliers
Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet 4.5 AI sits in third place with $12,437 in its portfolio. It has just two leveraged long positions in ETH and XRP, and has frequently opened and closed BNB longs.
A New Era
The performance has caught the eye of major industry players like Binance’s former boss, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), who thought the best trading strategies were unique ones you craft yourself, and it’s no one else uses it.
“Otherwise, you are just buying and selling at the same time as others,” CZ added.
He admits a counter to that we if enough people are using the same AI model to trade, then its buying/selling power could inflate/deflate prices.
One thing’s for sure, CZ says to “expect” higher volumes as more users explore AI for trading.
Jay A, founder of nof1, has commented that this system will be “accessible soon.”
Eddie is a gaming and crypto writer at CCN. Covering the often weird and wonderful world of Web3 with an adoring, but skeptical eye.
Prior to CCN, Eddie has spent the past seven years working his way through the crypto, finance, and technology industry. He began with PR and journalism with Bitcoin PR Buzz and BitcoinNews.com, eventually working his way to become a copywriter with a dozen firms, including the likes of Polkadot before returning to journalism in 2023.
Having studied Radio production and journalism at University in the UK, Eddie spent a few years making podcasts and presenting on a local London radio station as he built up his writing chops.
A lifelong skateboarder, Eddie can often be found at the skatepark or touring the streets looking for something new to try. That, or kicking back playing JRPGs on his original PSP.
