Fruit Fly Brain Makes Profit Trading Bitcoin

A simulated fruit fly brain has made a profit trading Bitcoin, according to an experiment by Coinbase's software engineer Alex Wormuth. Dubbed 'Stonkfly', the system uses neural activity to make trading decisions and was given $100 to trade Bitcoin.

One day after launching the experiment, Wormuth reported that the fly had made a $1 profit. The system takes public BTC-USDC market data from Coinbase and converts it into an RGB visual representation, which is then fed into thousands of simulated sensory inputs corresponding to neurons in the visual system of the insect.

The fly's trading decisions are based on neural activity, with the portfolio stimulating 15 identified PAM11 dopamine neurons if it makes money, and two PPL101 neurons associated with aversive signaling if it loses money. However, Wormuth notes that a $1 gain could be simply market movement combined with arbitrary trading decisions.