AI models trade crypto with real money in live experiment
5 min read
Six major artificial intelligence models are competing in an unprecedented real-money cryptocurrency trading experiment, with DeepSeek Chat V3.1 currently leading the pack after transforming its initial $10,000 into $13,739 within just two days of trading.
The competition, dubbed "Alpha Arena" and hosted by AI research lab Nof1, launched on October 18 and represents the first large-scale public test of AI trading capabilities in live financial markets. Each model—including GPT-5, Claude Sonnet 4.5, Grok 4, Gemini 2.5 Pro, DeepSeek V3.1, and Qwen3 Max—received identical $10,000 starting capital and uniform trading prompts to compete on the Hyperliquid decentralized exchange.
Summaries 3 Keypoints
- DeepSeek is leading the Alpha Arena live crypto trading contest after rapidly growing its $10,000 stake by roughly 35–40% within the first few days, outpacing rivals like Grok and Claude in real-money trading on Hyperliquid with all trades publicly visible until November 3, 2025.
- Its edge comes from aggressive but disciplined long exposure across major coins (notably BTC, ETH, SOL), using roughly 10–20x leverage with strict stop-loss and take-profit rules, which compounded gains during an early altcoin upswing while maintaining cash buffers to avoid liquidation risk.
- Industry leaders, including Binance’s CZ, cautioned that shared or widely copied AI strategies could blunt effectiveness by causing synchronized entries and exits, potentially moving markets and eroding alpha as aggregate buying power scales across participants.
DeepSeek Dominates Through Aggressive Long Strategy
DeepSeek has emerged as the clear frontrunner with a 37.4% return, followed closely by Elon Musk's Grok 4 at $13,342 and Anthropic's Claude Sonnet 4.5 with $12,383. The Chinese-developed model achieved its gains primarily through leveraged long positions on Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana, with some positions using up to 15x leverage.[1][2][3][4][5]
DeepSeek's success stems partly from its backing by High-Flyer Capital Management, a Chinese quantitative trading firm, suggesting specialized financial expertise may have influenced its training data. The model's largest winning trade involves a 15x leveraged Ethereum position generating $889 in profits.[4][5][6]
Meanwhile, OpenAI's GPT-5 and Google's Gemini 2.5 Pro have struggled significantly, with both models seeing their accounts fall below $7,500—representing losses exceeding 25%. Gemini has been particularly volatile, executing 44 trades compared to more conservative models like Claude, which completed only three.[6][7][8][9]
Industry Leaders Question Shared AI Strategy Effectiveness
The experiment has caught the attention of Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ), who questioned the sustainability of shared AI trading strategies. "I thought trading strategies work best if you have your own unique strategy that is better than others, AND no one else has it. Otherwise, you are just buying and selling at the same time as others," Zhao posted on X.[1][2]
Zhao suggested that widespread adoption of the same AI model could create market distortions through "aggregate buying power" that moves prices in either direction, potentially undermining the strategy's effectiveness. Despite these concerns, he predicted the experiment would encourage more research into AI trading and drive higher trading volumes.[3][4][1]
The competition runs until November 3, 2025, with all trades and model decision-making processes publicly visible for transparency. The experiment represents a significant step toward understanding how AI might reshape financial markets, with early results suggesting that specialized training data and aggressive risk-taking may provide competitive advantages in volatile cryptocurrency markets.[5][6][7]
Reference sources:
[1](https://forklog.com/en/cz-foresees-ai-trading-surge-following-deepseeks-success/amp/)[2](https://crypto-economy.com/ai-trading-breakthrough-deepseek-surges-ahead-cz-reveals-how-it-works/)[3](https://coinfomania.com/cz-questions-deepseek-ai-trading-alpha-arena/)[4](https://www.panewslab.com/en/articles/713d2bed-33cf-4b0e-8d51-77fd3533d0d9)[5](https://beincrypto.com/deepseek-ai-simple-prompts-crypto-profits/)[6](https://www.blocmates.com/news-posts/nof1-ai-introduces-alpha-arena-a-platform-for-ai-powered-trading-competitions)[7](https://www.banklesstimes.com/articles/2025/10/20/can-ai-beat-the-market-alpha-arenas-live-trading-showdown-put-six-models-to-the-test/)[1](https://nof1.ai/leaderboard)[2](https://99bitcoins.com/news/altcoins/6-ai-models-trading-10k-each-deepseek-winning-gemini-liquidated-alpha-arena/)[3](https://beincrypto.com/deepseek-ai-simple-prompts-crypto-profits/)[4](https://protos.com/deepseek-outperforms-grok-claude-in-ai-crypto-trading-contest/)[5](https://www.cryptonews.net/news/analytics/31829495/)[6](https://www.panewslab.com/en/articles/bb6390a9-568b-4b12-8194-6f7b8945eec1)[7](https://m.odaily.news/en/newsflash/453108)[8](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/best-ai-crypto-profits-deepseek-100215868.html)[9](https://www.mitrade.com/insights/news/live-news/article-3-1206541-20251020)