Bankr: a unique AI companion for decentralized finance?

Mar 02, 2025

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Bankr: a unique AI companion for decentralized finance

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Bankr: a unique AI companion for decentralized finance

The rise of AI in financial services has taken a new turn with the emergence of Bankr, a conversational AI bot designed specifically for decentralized finance (DeFi) trading. Operating on the Base network (Coinbase’s layer on Ethereum), Bankr has created a unique bridge between social media and crypto trading, automatically assigning EVM wallets (EVM stands for Ethereum Virtual Machine, the “software” that runs on the layer 1 blockchain Ethereum) to users' social media accounts on platforms like X and Farcaster.

There’s no better to introduce Bankr than its own pitch:

Your Friendly AI-Powered Crypto Companion. Buy, sell, swap, place limit orders, and manage your wallet effortlessly, just by sending a message.

The BANKR value proposition

At its core, Bankr aims to democratize access to DeFi by eliminating technical barriers through a natural language interface. The platform enables users to execute trades and manage their crypto portfolios through simple conversational commands across X, Farcaster, Discord (soon), and Telegram (sson). Each social account receives its own dedicated trading wallet, which can be managed either through direct platform interactions or through Bankr’s private terminal at bankr.bot.

Currently in public alpha, Bankr’s technical capabilities support essential operations on the Base network:

Token swapping, buying, selling, and transfers
Market insights for Base-listed tokens
Clanker token launches (a token launchpad on Base, learn more)
Social-to-social crypto transfers through simple commands
Wallet mode for connecting traditional wallets
Limit orders (recently tested by the founder and coming soon)

The recent addition of Wallet mode allows users to connect traditional wallets to the Bankr terminal (self-custody wallets created outside of Bankr, learn what a self-custodial wallet is) and and use natural language to queue up transactions for manual approval. This feature is particularly useful for bulk token swaps to $BNKR or cleaning up old wallets, and sets the foundation for seamless integration with third-party and smart wallets.

For the moment, NFT transactions are not (yet?) supported and wallets cannot be merged across different social platforms.

Bankr and its native token $BNKR

Bankr took innovation a step further by launching its own token, $BNKR, using Clankr, an AI-driven token deployment bot that we just introduced earlier in this article. The objective of having a $BNKR token is to adds value to the Bankr ecosystem, aligning incentives and driving growth. Bankr reinvests transaction fees (from the 0.8% transaction fees) into $BNKR which will then be held in the $BNKR treasury, aiming at creating a flywheel effect that benefits users and strengthens the community.

How does Bankr generate revenue?

Bankr generates revenue through swap fees collected on every Base network transaction, with 100% of these fees redistributed to token holders:

60% to $BNKR holders (with some details I decided to withhold because a bit complex)
40% to $TN100x holders (again, with some details I decided to withhold because a bit complex)

$TN100x is a memecoin on Base that was created by Bankr Founder "Deployer" (Bankr Founder 0xDeployer on X/Twitter), who is also associated with the Ham community. The token is described as being "backed by one of the largest and most popular communities on Warpcast" and is often referred to as HAM ($TN100X) in the Farcaster ecosystem. $TN100x is one of several community reward tokens that emerged on Farcaster, alongside others like $DEGEN, $FARTHER. These tokens have been characterized as "scene memecoins" that use certain community rules as their application scenarios.

Bankr’s evolution includes several key initiatives:

Limit orders (successfully tested and coming soon)
Frames v2 integration (Farcaster-native mini-apps, read our piece on Farcaster)
Multi-chain support including Solana
Enhanced social features
Smart wallet integration leveraging EIP-7702
Scheduled actions
More robust market insights
Price alerts

A word about EIP-7702

EIP-7702 is a significant Ethereum upgrade scheduled for implementation in Q1 2025 (likely March or April) as part of Ethereum's Pectra upgrade. This innovation allows Externally Owned Accounts (EOAs) to temporarily function as smart contract wallets during transactions without changing their addresses.

For tools like Bankr, EIP-7702 means they can offer advanced wallet features without requiring users to migrate to entirely new wallet systems. This approach is more efficient than previous account abstraction proposals like “Account Abstraction” ERC-4337, which required deploying completely new smart contract accounts.

The EIP-7702 implementation is often compared to upgrading a gas car to a hybrid vehicle, adding new capabilities without replacing the entire system. This makes it particularly valuable for seamless integration with third-party wallets and smart wallet systems.

Conclusion? Why I believe there is a strong relevance for Bankr in this market context

The current DeFi backdrop presents a paradox: while it promises financial inclusion and accessibility, its technical complexity often creates the opposite effect. Bankr’s conversational interface addresses this contradiction by enabling users to send crypto as easily as sending a tweet, requiring no understanding of wallet addresses or complex interfaces. Bankr's approach to combining social media identity with blockchain transactions represents a significant evolution in DeFi accessibility. By creating dedicated wallets for social accounts and enabling natural language transactions, it's establishing a new paradigm for crypto interactions that could help bridge the gap between traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi). Bankr’s objective is imho to bridge the Ce/TradFI - DeFI devide, where Ce/TradFI means centralized / traditional finance we all know and are familiar about (“easier” to trade from a UX standpoint).
Also, Bankr’s approach aligns with one of the leading crypto trends of 2025, the integration of AI with blockchain. AI and crypto are two of the most impactful tech developments of our time, and their convergence is reshaping the market landscape. Projects combining AI capabilities with crypto capabilities are expected to dominate tech conversations and the crypto market throughout 2025 AND BEYOND.
The success of Bankr’s model could significantly influence DeFi adoption rates by lowering entry barriers and making crypto transactions as intuitive as social media interactions. This aligns with broader industry expectations that by 2025, new distribution models in financial services will be more automated, channel agnostic, and capable of meeting individual needs.
While the promise of simplified access through conversational AI is compelling, success will ultimately depend on the platform's ability to maintain security, reliability, and user trust while navigating an increasingly complex regulatory landscape.

Note: This analysis reflects is for information only, not an invitation to use any of the protocols and tools presented in this article. Given the experimental nature of Bankr, readers of this blog article and users of the Bankr protocols should conduct thorough research and understand associated risks before participating. As in any fast-moving ecosystems, details and parameters might have changed since time of writing (March 2, 2025).

Some links: Bankr manifesto | Bankr terms | Bankr on X | Bankr on Farcaster/Warpcast

See you,
Raph.