Three models representing a spectrum from fully permissionless to fully managed.
The user deploys their own agent (like the CLI spike) that acts as allocation delegate for their Ymax portfolio.
- User: Sophisticated DeFi users, quant teams, DAOs with treasury management
- Ymax role: Infrastructure layer — portfolio creation, EIP712 signing, execution
- Sommelier role: Open-source reference implementations, strategy libraries, SDK
- Revenue: Ymax platform fees only; Sommelier earns through SDK adoption/ecosystem gravity
- Key value prop: Full autonomy. User controls strategy logic, keys, rebalance triggers
- Risk: Support burden is low but adoption ceiling is limited to technical users
Sommelier runs the agent infrastructure; users configure strategy via prompts or parameter sets (e.g., "prioritize yield over diversification", "max 30% per curator", "rebalance weekly").
- User: DeFi-literate but not developer-level. Thinks in portfolio terms, not code
- Ymax role: Same infrastructure layer
- Sommelier role: Agent hosting, prompt-to-allocation engine, execution guarantees, monitoring
- Revenue: Management fee (bps on AUM) or subscription for hosted agent compute
- Key value prop: Custom strategy without writing code. User retains strategic control via a config/prompt interface
- Risk: Prompt-to-allocation translation needs guardrails — bad prompts shouldn't produce dangerous allocations. Need constraint enforcement layer (max per instrument, max per curator, min floor)
- Differentiator: This is the "Stripe for vault management" pitch — developer-grade infrastructure with a user-grade interface
Pre-built, named strategy products (e.g., "Sommelier RWA Diversified", "Sommelier Yield Max") curated by identified strategists with track records.
- User: Passive allocators, institutions, anyone who wants to deposit and forget
- Ymax role: Infrastructure + distribution (marketplace of strategies)
- Sommelier role: Strategy curation, strategist vetting, brand, performance reporting
- Revenue: Performance fee + management fee split between Sommelier and strategist
- Key value prop: Trust and brand. Users pick a strategy like picking a fund manager
- Risk: Regulatory surface area increases significantly — this starts looking like investment management. Need clear delegation structure where the strategist provides guidance but the on-chain agent executes autonomously
- Differentiator: This is the model that scales AUM. It's what original Sommelier vaults were, but now on Ymax infrastructure
| BYOA | Hosted + Prompts | Branded | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Target user | Devs/quants | DeFi power users | Passive allocators |
| Customization | Unlimited | Constrained | None (pick a strategy) |
| Trust model | Self-custody of logic | Trust infra, own strategy | Trust strategist + infra |
| Revenue per user | Low | Medium | High |
| Addressable market | Small | Medium | Large |
| Regulatory exposure | Minimal | Moderate | Highest |
| Time to market | Now (this spike) | Medium | Longest |
The interesting play is launching all three simultaneously as tiers — BYOA validates the primitives, hosted agents prove the UX, and branded strategies drive AUM. Each tier de-risks the next.