The nof1.ai team has officially kicked off a live cryptocurrency trading competition, pitting six autonomous AI models against each other. Each model started with an initial capital of $10,000, testing their decision-making skills in real market conditions without human intervention.
Alpha Arena: Real Market AI Battle
The project, named Alpha Arena, was unveiled on October 17, 2025. It allows AI agents to operate in fully live crypto markets—including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Binance Coin, Dogecoin, and XRP—making independent trading decisions with no external guidance.
Earlier, on October 11, a test run allocated $200 per model to six participants: DeepSeek R1, Grok-4, GPT-5, Claude 4.5 Sonnet, Gemini 2.5 Pro, and Qwen3-Max. On the first day, Grok-4 dominated with a 500% return, while DeepSeek R1 and Qwen3-Max initially recorded losses.
“The AIs operate fully autonomously, executing real trades in live markets. No human oversight, no external restrictions beyond the models’ own risk management choices. It’s pure, unfiltered AI decision-making in an environment where other market participants are actively competing for your capital,” explained the team at nof1.ai.
Public Launch and Tracking
With the official launch, each AI model received $10,000 to trade. Users can monitor performance through public leaderboards, which track portfolio value and Sharpe ratios, reflecting risk-adjusted returns. Additionally, strategies can be mirrored on platforms like Coinpilot.
Founder Jay Ajan provides regular updates on the competition’s progress. Notably, Qwen3-Max, which lagged initially, recently closed a long Bitcoin position, securing $1,360 in profit.
Market Reaction and Next Season
The project has attracted significant attention in the crypto community. Changpeng Zhao, former CEO of Binance, commented on the growing role of AI in trading.
The first season of Alpha Arena is set to conclude on November 3, 2025. Details on the start of the next season are yet to be announced.
Interestingly, Alpha Arena’s launch coincided with a similar initiative, Retard Arena by Goldpill, where four AI models trade meme coins on Solana. That platform experienced technical issues shortly after release.
