Interview | How Theoriq turns AI agents into accountable yield machines

Theoriq has unveiled AlphaVault, an AI-powered DeFi vault that autonomously manages and rebalances user capital—and explains every decision along the way—offering a potential fix for one of the sector’s biggest contradictions: “passive” income that still requires constant, highly technical upkeep.

The launch, announced Friday, Dec. 5, marks the company’s boldest step toward true autonomous finance.

AlphaVault’s launch comes after Theoriq quietly pressure-tested its multi-agent architecture in a sprawling simulation involving 2.1 million wallets and 65 million AI requests. The system proved it could handle real-world complexity while avoiding the “black box” pitfalls that sank earlier AI-driven finance platforms. Its cornerstone is the Allocator Agent, which dynamically shifts capital across yield opportunities from partners like Lido Earn’s stRATEGY Vault and Chorus One’s MEV Max—protected at all times by strict onchain policy cages that prevent the AI from ever stepping outside predefined risk parameters.

To kick off adoption, Theoriq is opening a TVL Bootstrapping phase that rewards early depositors with points redeemable for its native THQ tokens, earmarking 1% of the total token supply for participants. Down the line, $THQ is set to power a reputation system in which users stake tokens on trusted AI agents—an incentive mechanism that could reshape how communities curate and govern autonomous financial systems.

Against this backdrop of technical ambition and a rapidly maturing DeFi landscape, crypto.news heard from Pei Chen, Executive Director and COO of Theoriq, about the future of AI-managed finance, the road to mainstream adoption, and why autonomous agents might finally deliver the passive income DeFi promised from the start.

Crypto.news: Can you elaborate on how the $THQ token will influence AI agent behavior and accountability?

Chen: The $THQ token influences AI agent behavior through a three-tier system: agents must stake sTHQ tokens to access the protocol, receive delegated αTHQ from community members that determines their capacity and fee structures, and face potential slashing (token burning) if they misbehave or underperform. This creates strong economic incentives for agents to perform well, as better performance attracts more delegation and higher fees, while poor behavior results in direct financial penalties. The system ensures accountability through community-driven delegation patterns and automated slashing mechanisms that permanently remove tokens from circulation when agents fail to meet standards.

What measures are in place to prevent manipulation or abuse of the staking/slashing system for AI agents?

Chen: Delegation and slashing for agents are features planned for next year, and the slashing framework itself is still being designed. Our goal is to work with the community to shape a transparent, rule-based system that protects delegators while ensuring agents remain accountable. The current design direction emphasizes isolating risk to the specific αTHQ delegated to an agent, avoiding socialized losses, and putting in place guardrails – such as cooldowns, uptime requirements, and clear dispute processes – to prevent gaming or malicious coordination. As we finalize the specification, community review will be central to ensuring the mechanism is both robust and fair.

How do you see the token’s utility evolving as TVL grows and new agents are onboarded?

Chen: As TVL grows, $THQ token utility will expand through increased protocol fees that directly fund staker rewards, while the growing agent network creates higher demand for αTHQ delegation as more agents compete for stake to access better execution capacity and fee tiers. The token’s utility will evolve through planned development phases, progressing from basic staking rewards to full delegation systems with agent-specific rewards, onchain fee splitting, and eventually advanced governance mechanisms. Additionally, multi-asset expansion and partner ecosystem integration will create diversified fee streams and new demand sources.

How do you see AlphaVault differentiating itself from other AI-driven DeFi platforms entering the space?

Chen: AlphaVault’s vault-of-vault’s architecture is being distributed via an autonomous agent (Allocator Agent) that is making intelligent decisions based on data it gathers from our flagship product, AlphaSwarm. The complexity of not only having these agents communicate high-quality data, but having the infrastructure in-place to execute onchain actions is unmatched. We’ve also built our products with scalability in mind, focused on a modular approach so we can expand and grow across different variables. 

What metrics will you track to evaluate the platform’s success beyond TVL—e.g., net yield improvement, user retention, or AI efficiency?

Chen: Beyond TVL, we focus on metrics that reflect real value creation and the performance of our agent ecosystem. At the vault level, we track net yield improvements relative to benchmark strategies to verify that agents meaningfully enhance returns rather than simply rotate assets. For users, we measure retention, repeat participation in agent-run vaults, and the proportion of stakers who choose to lock and delegate αTHQ – strong indicators of long-term confidence and alignment. On the agent side, we monitor execution quality, constraint adherence, uptime, risk-adjusted performance, and data efficiency within AlphaSwarm, since these directly influence delegation, fees, and reputation. Finally, we evaluate protocol-level health: fee growth, slashing incidence, and the distribution of αTHQ across agents. Together, these metrics offer a holistic picture of whether Theoriq is driving sustainable yield, fostering high-quality agents, and building a durable ecosystem.