LlamaAI: the LLM for crypto and TradFi
A purpose-built LLM, it launched in late 2025, allowing LlamaPro subscribers to instantly analyze DefiLlama’s comprehensive, up-to-the-minute crypto data with plain language queries.
Researchers can squeeze incredible value out of general-purpose large language models like Claude and ChatGPT. But they have their limits and often “hallucinate” or furnish outdated information.
That isn’t so bad if you’re asking for help meal-planning or making a playlist for the upcoming road trip. But it can be catastrophic when you’re trying to decide where to invest your money.
That’s where LlamaAI comes into play. A purpose-built LLM, it launched in late 2025, allowing LlamaPro subscribers to instantly analyze DefiLlama’s comprehensive, up-to-the-minute crypto data with plain language queries.
Less than eight months later, it’s vastly improved.
“It has access to tons more data sources now,” Patrick Scott, DefiLlama’s chief revenue officer, said. “In addition to our data, it has access to data from X, it has access to news articles, it has access to onchain wallet data, has access to TradFi data, has access to prediction markets.”
But wait, there’s more.
Under the hood, LlamaAI relies on well-known frontier models. As those models have improved in recent months, so has LlamaAI, according to Scott. “Architectural changes” have also improved the quality of its answers.
“One [change] was improving the master prompt after seeing what worked and what didn't work for other people,” Scott said. “The answers are legitimately way, way better than they were when we first started.”
A new “research mode” can generate in-depth, fully sourced research reports on a given topic. Traders will appreciate the addition of candlestick charts and Monte Carlo simulations. Don’t know where to start? LlamaAI now offers suggested prompts.
Last but not least, it’s been integrated with X, the crypto industry’s online water cooler. If you see a post from an interesting project, tag @llama with a question, like “Is this project really generating as much revenue as it claims?” LlamaAI will respond in the app, just like Grok, X’s in-house LLM.
DefiLlama’s pseudonymous head, 0xngmi, decided to build LlamaAI after he found himself underwhelmed by other AI products. It took DefiLlama engineers an entire year.
DefiLlama offers real-time data on more than 500 chains, more than 6,000 protocols, and more than 15,000 liquidity pools. Originally, LlamaAI could only scour this data, making it useful for questions like, “Which day of the week is best to buy Bitcoin?” and “Who’s winning the perp DEX wars?”
It was part of DefiLlama’s broader mission to democratize crypto data. No longer would custom analysis be limited to professional investors and their research desks. No longer would DefiLlama’s users be limited to painstakingly comparing the information housed in pre-made charts and graphs.
Improvements in the months since LlamaAI’s launch — in particular, the integration of traditional financial data — were motivated by that same impulse.
“Now it can generate custom charts that compare Coinbase stock to Hyperliquid,” Scott said. “I've had to do TradFi things that had nothing to do with crypto. I had to map data center supply chains, and come up with different stocks that are in that field, and pull up recent news updates about them.”