As AI agents become a bigger topic in the crypto space, Pranav Ramesh told CoinDesk that Nasdaq already uses AI agents in several sections of its business and has rapidly expanded its use over roughly the past 18 months.
Ramesh, head of options research at Nasdaq and co-founder and chief technology officer of Leadpoet, said the most meaningful change is in trust. “AI agents are relatively new and have probably been used more and more over the past six months,” he said, arguing that previous systems caused hallucinations to occur too often for sensitive corporate workflows.
He said Nasdaq is leveraging AI agents in areas such as market surveillance, compliance and market microstructure analysis, pointing to Nasdaq Verafin’s “Agent AI Workforce,” which he said automates “low-cost, high-volume compliance processes” in anti-money laundering operations.
Ramesh also pointed to Nasdaq’s AI-powered order types. In 2023, Nasdaq announced that its Dynamic M-ELO order type became the first exchange AI-powered order type approved by the SEC, using an AI model with more than 140 factors that adjust to real-time market conditions.
For Ramesh, the experience informs his perspective on cryptocurrencies. He said crypto trading platforms are likely to proactively deploy AI agents, both for internal operations and retail-facing tools such as position analysis, trade recommendations, and execution support. “The world of crypto trading is really going to take the lead in how AI is used within the retail trading environment,” he said.
He did not say the changes were completely autonomous. Instead, he said, a model will take hold where agents handle most of the analysis and workflow, while humans retain final approval. He said in an interview that many systems at Nasdaq are still down, short of full automation, and still require human review at the last stage.
AI and AI agents will replace much of the human workforce
Mr. Ramesh’s views are also unusually frank regarding labor. “Certainly, there’s going to be a lot of work involved,” he said of AI agents, adding that he believes lower-level software, customer service and analyst roles are already being replaced as systems become faster, cheaper and more reliable. He framed it as an observable trend rather than a prediction.
And he seems to be right for companies, including Crypto.com, which laid off 12% of its staff to drive automation and efficiency through AI. Earlier, crypto research firm Messari parted ways with several employees and its chief executive officer as the new CEO transitions to what he calls an “AI-first company.” Block, the payments company founded by Jack Dorsey, announced plans last month to cut 40% of its workforce, or more than 4,000 jobs, citing improvements to its AI models.
AI trends led to the creation of Leadpoet
This paper also formed the path to Leadpoet, a start-up company he co-founded with Gavin Zeentz. The two met at Nasdaq and founded the company after repeatedly encountering the same problem, according to a February 2026 company fact sheet. Outbound tools can generate static lists, but manual research was still required to identify actual purchase intent.
Leadpoet describes itself as an AI-powered lead qualification platform that transforms web signals and company context into “decision-ready lead recommendations” and emphasizes “accuracy over quantity.” The company says it supports private deployment, allowing customers to score intent and generate outreach on their own data without exposing the data to the vendor.
The fact sheet states that Leadpoet uses Bittensor, which describes itself as a decentralized, blockchain-powered AI network that allows participants to contribute to models and make calculations while earning rewards. Ramesh said the decentralized competitive structure is part of the appeal because it allows models to improve faster than a centralized roadmap.
Leadpoet said he is also a member of NVIDIA Inception, NVIDIA’s startup program for AI companies. NVIDIA describes Incept as a free program that provides technical resources, go-to-market support, and access to a broader ecosystem.
In the company’s February 2026 fact sheet, Leadpoet said it reached an annual run rate of $1 million in its first quarter and received support from DSV Fund and Astrid. In the same document, DSV Fund CIO Siam Kidd said Ramesh and Zaentz combine “deep AI engineering expertise with a true understanding of day-to-day sales.”
Ramesh directly connected the company to what he says he’s seen within large organizations deploying AI: agents moving from assistants to systems that can handle actual operational tasks. He said that change is likely to become apparent sooner in cryptocurrencies than in other areas of finance.
