Alex Svanevik: Nansen integrates on-chain analytics with trading execution, AI agents will revolutionize transaction processes, and the future of investing is agentic and autonomous | Unchained

Key takeaways

• Nansen integrates on-chain analytics with trading execution to streamline the user experience.
• The future of investing will involve more interactive and agentic trading experiences.
• AI agents can simplify transaction processes by executing multiple transactions with a simple command.
• Nansen charges competitive fees that are the same or lower than other platforms.
• Users are expected to become more comfortable with AI agents handling transactions over time.
• Nansen’s users are sophisticated and expect low fees and better prices.
• The evolution of trading will involve more autonomous agents managing investments.
• Many investors prefer a passive investment approach rather than actively managing portfolios.
• The user experience in crypto is currently poor and needs improvement.
• The infrastructure in crypto is now good enough to build world-class products.
• Nansen primarily caters to individual investors who actively trade on-chain.
• Nansen’s strength lies in labeling addresses to track on-chain activities of significant market players.
• Opportunities exist on-chain if data is analyzed effectively.
• The mission of Nansen is to surface signals and create winners in the crypto space.
• Ethereum’s platform nature allows for the creation of diverse applications, driving its value.

Guest intro

Alex Svanevik is the co-founder and CEO of Nansen, a crypto intelligence platform that enriches on-chain data with millions of wallet labels. Prior to Nansen, he served as Chief Data Scientist at CoinFi and Data Science Manager at Schibsted Media Group. He holds an MSc in Artificial Intelligence from the University of Edinburgh.

The integration of analytics and trading

• Nansen integrates on-chain analytics with trading execution to enhance the user experience.

  — Alex Svanevik

• The platform allows users to conduct research, discovery, and execution in one product.

• We’ve basically taken this function in house which means that you can do your whole on-chain investing and trading within the same product.

  — Alex Svanevik

• This integration differentiates Nansen from competitors by offering a unique feature.
• The future of investing will involve more agentic and interactive trading experiences.

• The thinking is that we’re basically creating a new way to trade that’s agentic on-chain and integrated in one product.

  — Alex Svanevik

• The user experience of executing trades through Nansen is described as ‘magical’.

• It’s a pretty magical user experience in my humble opinion.

  — Alex Svanevik

AI agents and transaction processes

• AI agents streamline transaction processes by executing multiple transactions with a simple command.

• We wanna really nail that first user use case where you just ask it to do kind of simple transactions.

  — Alex Svanevik

• The use of AI can enhance user experience in trading by simplifying transaction execution.
• Nansen charges competitive fees that are the same or lower than other platforms.

• We’re actually not marking up at all the price that you’d get through the aggregator.

  — Alex Svanevik

• This pricing strategy positions Nansen favorably against competitors in the market.
• Users are expected to become more comfortable with AI agents handling transactions over time.

• I think over time more and more people are gonna get comfortable trading the new way.

  — Alex Svanevik

User expectations and market positioning

• Users of Nansen’s product are more sophisticated and expect low fees and better prices.

• Our users… are probably a little bit more sophisticated than the average investor.

  — Alex Svanevik

• The evolution of trading will involve more autonomous agents managing investments.

• I think the longer term vision… is basically that a lot of agents can do things autonomously.

  — Alex Svanevik

• Many people prefer a passive investment approach rather than actively managing their portfolios.

• There is clearly like a need for more passive investment that is also maybe more than just buying bitcoin.

  — Alex Svanevik

• The agent creates chain abstraction, simplifying the user experience in on-chain trading.

• The agent almost creates what you can think of as like chain abstraction.

  — Alex Svanevik

Current challenges and future potential

• The user experience of trading on-chain is currently poor due to inadequate infrastructure.

• We should acknowledge that the user experience of trading on-chain is pretty garbage.

  — Alex Svanevik

• The infrastructure in crypto is now good enough to build world-class products and user experiences.

• But now I think the infrastructure is good enough to build really world-class products.

  — Alex Svanevik

• Nansen primarily caters to individual investors who actively trade on-chain.

• The core user we’ve always focused on is kind of the dgen the individual investor.

  — Alex Svanevik

• Nansen’s strength lies in labeling addresses to help users track on-chain activities.

• We basically label addresses that is one of our core strengths.

  — Alex Svanevik

On-chain opportunities and company mission

• There are opportunities on-chain if you know how to analyze the data effectively.

• If you actually make use of the information of what’s happening on-chain you can have an edge.

  — Alex Svanevik

• The mission of the company is to surface the signal and create winners in the crypto space.

• The core thing has always been the same which is that we wanna surface the signal and create winners.

  — Alex Svanevik

• Ethereum’s platform nature allows for the creation of diverse applications, which can drive its value.

• I like that it’s a platform because that means people can create things on the platform.

  — Alex Svanevik

• If a successful currency is developed, it is likely to be built on Ethereum.

• I thought if someone does figure that out there’s a good chance they will build that currency on Ethereum.

  — Alex Svanevik

AI’s impact on individual investors

• AI will significantly benefit individual investors by providing advanced decision-making tools.

• My view is that AI the benefits of AI are going to accrue to individual investors more.

  — Alex Svanevik

• The fragmented nature of the crypto market allows individual investors to find unique opportunities.

• There’s so much stuff happening in crypto and it’s so fragmented that everyone can have alpha.

  — Alex Svanevik

• Activity in on-chain trading is expected to increase significantly due to improved infrastructure.

• It just seems to me that you know that is an incredible setup for individual investors.

  — Alex Svanevik

• Many existing trading tools are inadequate and could lead to significant losses for users.

• There’s a lot of slop out there and I think a lot of people frankly are gonna lose money.

  — Alex Svanevik

Enhancing trading processes with AI

• AI is enhancing the trading process by making it simpler and more efficient for users.

• If you just have an incredibly lubricated process a lot of which is done by AI then I think people are just gonna trade more.

  — Alex Svanevik

• The trading activity will increase as user experience improves, particularly with tokenized assets.

• All of these things are just gonna have more and more activity is my view.

  — Alex Svanevik

• The crypto market will experience a Cambrian explosion of diverse tokens due to lowered entry barriers.

• You’re gonna see like a jungle like a Cambrian explosion of all sorts of different tokens.

  — Alex Svanevik

• The opportunity to trade everything on-chain with AI represents one of the biggest technological opportunities.

• This opportunity we have in front of us which is to allow for people to trade everything on-chain with AI is like in my opinion one of the biggest opportunities in technology history ever.

  — Alex Svanevik

Future opportunities and technological advancements

• There is a significant opportunity to develop software that liberates traders from being glued to their screens.

• I actually think one of the biggest opportunities not just for crypto but for like software in general is to liberate people from those screens.

  — Alex Svanevik

• There is a significant opportunity to create new ways of working and investing that allow users to be more mobile.

• I get really excited about the idea that they can be outside in the real world touching grass but then also feel like they’re taking action on their portfolio.

  — Alex Svanevik

• Voice as a user interface will become a significant and underutilized opportunity in the future.

• I think there’s an opportunity to create new ways of doing things… and I’m super bullish on voice as a user interface.

  — Alex Svanevik

• We will see significant advancements in user experience and software interaction in the near future.

• There’s a lot of like we’re gonna see a lot of super cool things in the next… months in terms of how you deal with software.

  — Alex Svanevik

Security and infrastructure in trading

• The Nansen wallet is a self-custodial wallet that allows users to control their private keys.

• The way it works right now just to be super clear on that is that there’s an embedded wallet which we refer to as the Nansen wallet.

  — Alex Svanevik

• There is a massive opportunity to create better infrastructure for trading agents that is safe and potentially decentralized.

• I think this is a super interesting question… I think there’s a massive opportunity actually to create really good infrastructure for agents that’s safe maybe even decentralized.

  — Alex Svanevik

• Compromising trading agents can occur through private key theft or tampering with the agent’s instructions.

• There are actually two ways to compromise the agent that’s trading like one is to steal a private key.

  — Alex Svanevik

• The infrastructure for secure automated trading is not yet fully developed, which is why we are cautious about moving forward.

• This is actually part of the reasons why we’re we haven’t gone straight to this yet because we wanna make sure that the infrastructure is there to support this kind of workflow in a way that’s secure for users.

  — Alex Svanevik

Evaluating trading agents and user trust

• Users should approach trading agents cautiously and test them with small amounts of money.

• I think it’s a good idea when you test out these products if they do have trading capabilities to like start with a small amount of money.

  — Alex Svanevik

• Evaluating the performance of trading agents involves assessing their ability to understand trading intent.

• How good is it at understanding trading intent like does it understand your instruction and map it to the right type of transaction action.

  — Alex Svanevik

• Brand trust plays a significant role in consumer choices within the crypto space.

• I think that trust in the brand also matters if you if something pops up you’ve never heard of it yeah you should probably pay a bit more attention.

  — Alex Svanevik

• Real-time transparent metrics can enhance trust and evaluation of AI agents.

• What I would love to do is to get to a point where we have like real time transparent metrics on how our agent is doing.

  — Alex Svanevik