InfoFi Guide: Data-Driven Research
What is InfoFi?
InfoFi is the stack of protocols, platforms, and incentive systems that convert data, insights, and social attention into tradable, rewardable assets. Users (analysts, creators, communities) publish research or posts; AI models judge quality and context; on-chain rails pay out in tokens, points, or airdrops. It’s a shift from paying ad platforms to directly rewarding contributors who drive authentic growth. If DeFi made money programmable, InfoFi aims to make attention accountable.
Compared with SocialFi, which monetizes followers and raw engagement, InfoFi goes deeper: it tries to price insight and reputation and to pay for outcomes that matter to products and protocols.
This piece is the short version. Enjoy the deep-dive blog post here.
InfoFi vs prediction markets
Both try to extract value from knowledge. Prediction markets reward you for being right about outcomes; InfoFi rewards you for producing useful signals and distribution. Platforms like Polymarket demonstrated scale — over $3.6B of trading volume during the 2024 U.S. election cycle — while regulated markets like Kalshi and on-chain experiments such as Zeitgeist or Predict show the same “knowledge to payoff” mechanic in different wrappers.
Macro Drivers: Why InfoFi grows in 2025
We were highly interested in why this narrative grows so fast. Here’s what we’ve found:
- Information overload. Crypto spins up thousands of tokens and narratives; manual curation is impossible. Funds, founders, and traders need AI-first filters.
- AI × blockchain fit. NLP/LLMs and graph search can index crypto-native streams in real time; chains provide transparent rewards and attribution.
- On-chain attention economics. Instead of platforms capturing all the value, contributors capture value; projects pay communities, not intermediaries.
- VC validation. Backers like Dragonfly, Sequoia, Pantera, and Spartan signal this isn’t a fad and are funding core infrastructure.
- Launch mechanics. Airdrops, points, and loyalty programs now bootstrap networks by rewarding credible advocacy, not just speculation.
Key InfoFi Platforms
Kaito: Crypto Platform for Attention Tokenization
Kaito fuses an enterprise analytics layer with a gamified attention marketplace. Kaito Pro delivers AI-indexed research across X, Farcaster, Telegram, governance, news, and podcasts; Kaito Yaps scores creator posts (quality, focus, reputation) and pays from protocol budgets; Kaito Connect coordinates voting/leaderboards and integrations. Founded in 2022 by Yu Hu (ex-Citadel), Kaito raised $10.8M across a $5.3M seed (Feb 2023) and a $5.5M Series A (Jun 2023) at an $87.5M valuation; public metrics cited include ~200k monthly active “yappers” and $116M+ total value distributed by Q4 2025. Example: dYdX committed $50k/month to reward authentic attention via Kaito.
CookieDAO: Community-driven InfoFi Platform
Scores KOLs by engagement quality and loyalty, runs always-on leaderboards, and routes budgets through Cookie Snaps to creators who move the needle. It also offers data APIs for builders/AI agents. Funding noted as ~$5.5M pre-TGE plus ~$0.8M across public IDOs; listings on major CEXs; backers include Animoca, Spartan, Mapleblock, Castrum, GSR, Hartmann, and others (four rounds, ~40 investors).
Wallchain Quacks: Monetizing Solana and Base
Reads public X activity, scores usefulness, and pays “Quacks” points. Its X Score (0–1000) aims to quantify real influence and filter fake KOLs. Case study: an Avantis leaderboard ran two months and paid out about $2.82M, correlating with ~42k daily traders (2–5× uplift) and trades rising from 1.5M → 2.32M; Wallchain now lets anyone spin up mindshare leaderboards in minutes.
ProtoKOLs: Narrative and KOL tracker
Verify any X account, analyze KOL behavior, map token mentions, and correlate posts with price/volume. It also runs a KOL token with small circulating cap; target users are projects, agencies, and growth teams that need measurable, real-time campaign analytics.
GiveRep: Sui-native social reputation
Quantifies influence within the Sui ecosystem via REP points; integrates repSUI (liquid staking derivative) into loyalty flows. Founder: Eason Chen (Sui ambassador; ex-Mysten Labs intern). Monetization leans on ecosystem rewards and partner airdrops; REP is currently a points system, not a public fungible token.
Fantasy.top: Gamified influencer markets (NFT TCG)
Turns crypto influencers into NFT trading cards. Launched on Blast (May 2024), hit $36M weekly NFT volume shortly after; creators earned ~600 ETH. Raised $4.25M seed and migrated to Base (July 15, 2025). Cited traction: 120k+ players and multi-million rewards.
Mirra: “AI brain” of InfoFi
Community-in-the-loop AI with NLP points for contributors/scouts. As of late 2025, the team publicly paused the terminal to redirect resources, but the design — AI-verified curation with rewards — aligns tightly with InfoFi principles.
Ethos: On-chain credibility and peer reviews
Users accrue a Credibility Score via attestations and vouches, weighted by reviewer credibility; a Chrome overlay surfaces scores across X, OpenSea, and more. Pre-seed: $1.75M (July 2024). Founders: Trevor Thompson (CEO), Ben Walther (CTO). Goal: reduce scams by making reputation portable and legible across Web3 UX.
Arbus: Contextual intelligence layer
Arbus Terminal covers narratives/sentiment/trends with an AI assistant and project index; access is stake-to-access via $ARBUS and it integrates with Virtuals Protocol’s ACP so agents can query structured intel. After ~2 years’ build and a 6-month closed beta (~5,000 users), Arbus launched on Virtuals in May 2025; listings/market-cap data remain thin.
Zentry: Gaming InfoFi Platform
Rebranded from GuildFi (April 2024) to a gaming superlayer unifying Web2/Web3 actions, loyalty, social and IRL activity. Nexus rewards roles like Storytellers (creators) and Watchers (evaluators). Token $ZENT powers governance/rewards; users “infuse” ZENT to a Vault to earn Fragments that unlock realms and multipliers. More gaming-native than pure InfoFi, but deeply aligned with “pay for meaningful attention” mechanics.
Conclusion
InfoFi is graduating from a narrative to infrastructure: it turns attention into a priced, verifiable input you can buy, route, and audit. By treating insight and attention as on-chain assets, it gives founders and institutions a way to turn the chaos of feeds, chats, and forums into measurable signals with clear ROI. In short, we finally have incentives designed to attract attention to the real value.
But attention ≠ adoption. If you’re a DEX or plan to run one, the scorecard is still depth of liquidity, effective spreads, throughput, and retention.
If DeFi made money programmable, InfoFi makes attention accountable. Or is social farming just killing authentic growth?
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