DeepSeek dominates AI crypto trading challenge

A real-market trading test saw DeepSeek’s AI earn profits while others, including GPT-5, posted losses on decentralised crypto exchange Hyperliquid.
DeepSeek’s AI model V3.1 outperformed global rivals in a real-market crypto trading experiment, earning over 10 per cent profit while GPT-5 suffered major losses.

Chinese AI model DeepSeek V3.1 has outperformed its global competitors in a real-market cryptocurrency trading challenge, earning over 10 per cent profit in just a few days.

The experiment, named Alpha Arena, was launched by US research firm Nof1 to test the investing skills of leading LLMs.

Each participating AI was given US$10,000 to trade in six cryptocurrency perpetual contracts, including bitcoin and solana, on the decentralised exchange Hyperliquid. By Tuesday afternoon, DeepSeek V3.1 led the field, while OpenAI’s GPT-5 trailed behind with a loss of nearly 40 per cent.

The competition highlights the growing potential of AI models to make autonomous financial decisions in real markets.

It also underscores the rivalry between Chinese and American AI developers as they push to demonstrate their models’ adaptability beyond traditional text-based tasks.

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