Making decentralised finance more accessible through the power of AI
Using AI-native engineering to build the foundational platform that makes decentralised finance as simple as any consumer banking app
Decentralised finance (DeFi) holds enormous potential, but it's not always the most user friendly - meaning that a lot of people end up getting locked out of utilising it.
Recently, one of our clients set out to change that – to make it more accessible and for it to feel as simple as any consumer banking app. They partnered with Nearform to build the foundational platform that made it possible.
The challenge: Democratising DeFi
Our client was founded on the bold idea to democratise access to cryptocurrency and DeFi. Their mission was to deliver how crypto should work, bringing the simplicity of traditional consumer finance to the opportunity of DeFi, with an app experience that feels intuitive at every step.
It was a lofty ambition, one that would require complex and challenging execution.
Decentralised finance represents a profound shift in how people invest and manage wealth. But its promise has traditionally stayed locked behind a wall of complexity. Managing cryptographic wallets and private keys, understanding liquidity pools, navigating decentralised exchanges and executing cross-chain transactions all demand a level of technical knowledge from the user that excludes the vast majority of potential investors.
On paper, there are plenty of barriers to DeFi:
- Wallet and key management are opaque and intimidating for non-technical users
- Gas fees - transaction costs paid by users - introduce unpredictability and friction into every transaction
- Cross-chain investing requires navigating multiple ecosystems that are incompatible by design
- Onboarding and KYC processes are fragmented and poorly designed
While DeFi has the potential to serve a large swath of the population, it faces a wide technology gap relative to traditional finance like consumer banking apps.
We wanted to change this - making DeFi as usable and accessible as any consumer banking app, clearing each of the barriers above and unlocking mass adoption of decentralised investing.
Why Nearform? Track record of success in regulated industries
The client needed an engineering partner that could move quickly without cutting corners, with deep expertise navigating highly regulated markets. A partner that could get a superior product to market quickly, without compromising security and risk for both the users as well as for the company itself.
Nearform has proven success in challenging environments. This includes projects like the design and development of the latest Travelex mobile experience for money transfer, as well as critical public health tooling for a national government. This, combined with our expertise across professional services clients, where individual data is treated with the utmost confidentiality, made us a great partner for this project.
After careful consideration, they chose Nearform, describing the relationship as “genuinely symbiotic”. The client brought deep domain knowledge of the crypto space, and we brought AI-native engineering capabilities with the discipline to build modern financial systems that hold up under real-world pressure.
The solution: A foundational platform that empowers both users and developers
Our objective was straightforward: build a unique, bespoke, high-performance platform on a superior tech stack.
Our team designed and developed the back-end of a platform that radically simplified the entire customer journey, from first sign-up and KYC verification, to active DeFi investment in a single interface across multiple blockchain networks.
Our AI-native engineering approach meant senior-only developers applied intelligent automation, modern cloud-native architecture and deep integration with best-in-class DeFi infrastructure. This reduced the engineering effort required to integrate multiple blockchain ecosystems, while creating a scalable foundation for future product growth.
Our aim was to eliminate friction at every step for the user, and the outcome was a platform that feels as familiar as a consumer fintech app, while still delivering the full power of decentralised finance.lut
| Feature | What it looks like |
|---|---|
| Intuitive user experience | An interface that makes DeFi approachable for mainstream users, stripping out the intimidating complexity of blockchain interactions. |
| Non-custodial MPC wallets | Cryptographic security without the burden of private key management. Users have exclusive ownership of their assets, while a decentralised network ensures no single party controls the system. |
| TradFi on/off ramp | Frictionless movement of funds between traditional bank accounts and DeFi instruments, lowering the barrier to entry and long-term engagement |
| Seamless cross-chain trading | Invest and trade across multiple blockchain platforms from a single interface, with routing handled invisibly in the background. |
| Gas-free transactions | Smart contract abstraction (which converts a traditional crypto wallet into a fully programmable, smart contract account) removes gas fees from the user experience, eliminating a major source of friction and unpredictability. |
Approach: Bringing together domain expertise & seasoned AI engineers
We applied AI-native engineering practices throughout the project - using intelligent tooling to accelerate delivery, automated testing to ensure reliability at scale and AI-assisted code generation to maintain velocity without sacrificing quality. A single AI-native delivery pod shipped a production-grade platform on a tight timeline.
We also built a ‘trust stack’ alongside the tech stack, introducing layers of governance across the entire SDLC, to catch obvious issues, understand intent, validate behaviours and introduce clear accountability chains.
Our approach complemented the client’s cryptocurrency experience, to ensure we were combining DeFi protocol knowledge and enterprise-grade engineering at every step. Integrating several complex, best-in-class technology layers required deep domain understanding, alongside careful security design that balanced openness with robust protection for end users.
Every decision regarding user-centric design was grounded in the needs of mainstream users unfamiliar with blockchain. From wallet creation to trade execution, each feature was designed to abstract away complexity without reducing capability - serving both first-time DeFi users and experienced investors.
The results: Production-grade, secure platform to change the DeFi landscape
The platform launched publicly in January 2026, delivering on the client's vision to make decentralised investing as intuitive and accessible as modern consumer banking. By simplifying the entire investment journey - from onboarding and KYC through to multi-chain investing - the platform removed many of the barriers that have historically prevented mainstream users from engaging with DeFi.
What was the impact?
- Rapid growth in user adoption from day one, powered by frictionless onboarding.
- Multi-chain investment capability made available to mainstream users for the first time.
- A reduction in major sources of user friction, including gas-free transactions and cross chain complexity.
- A reusable platform foundation that became central to ongoing product strategy and future innovation.
Once we built the core back-end infrastructure, that foundation became the launchpad for every feature that followed, and for the go-forward business strategy itself.
We lowered the barrier to entry for mainstream DeFi adoption through a consumer-grade user experience and reduced the engineering effort required to integrate and manage multiple blockchain ecosystems. This allowed us to build a reusable platform foundation that became central to our client's ongoing product strategy and future innovation.
The product continues to evolve at the pace of both technology and customer needs, as the client delivers on its vision to transform traditional finance.
What’s your mission, and do you have what it takes to succeed?
Beyond the platform itself, this project demonstrated how a lean AI-native engineering team can deliver sophisticated financial products with enterprise-grade security, reliability and scalability. By combining intelligent automation with experienced senior engineers, we accelerated delivery, while maintaining the standards required for a regulated, high-trust environment.
If you’re building for production in regulated, high-stakes, technically demanding markets and need to move fast without trading away security or quality, then we only have one tip for you: The right engineering partner doesn’t just write code. They build the foundation that makes everything you do next possible.
That’s what our AI-native engineering approach delivers: speed, reliability and progress with purpose.
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