A digital simulation of a fruit fly brain is now trading BTC, ETH, USDC, and SOL on Coinbase after Coinbase software engineer Alex Wormuth linked it to the exchange’s AI agentic software. The system can buy, sell, or hold crypto in response to live prices. According to Protos, the experiment is still in negative territory, losing almost $1 after a day of trading.
The portfolio currently holds about $59 of USDC, almost $5 of BTC, $17 of ETH, and $17 of SOL. In a post on X, Wormuth wrote: “I gave the fly brain $100 to trade bitcoin. Dopamine neurons are stimulated when the fly makes profit. Neuron activity controls buy/sell decisions and makes trades on coinbase. Will the fly get rich?”
As described in the report, the setup ties neural activity in the simulated brain to trading actions. Market prices feed into the model, which then decides whether to buy, sell, or hold, with orders executed through Coinbase.
The trading experiment traces back to a newly released fly connectome
The project became possible after Google and a team of scientists at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Janelia Research Campus released a neuron graph last week. They said they mapped an adult male fruit fly’s brain and ventral nerve cord with 166,000 neurons and 125 million synaptic connections, calling it “the largest brain map by number of neurons to date.”
The brain map, also known as a connectome, took 20 years to create. Protos said the research is expected to help scientists study how the brain processes complex behavior and examine conditions including Alzheimer’s, dementia, and schizophrenia.
Developers are already testing the fly brain in other settings
Once the fly brain data became publicly accessible, developers began plugging it into a range of unusual simulations. A developer using the name Breg Grockman said he taught the fly to parallel park a car. In that simulation, the fly brain controls a 3D Mini Cooper S, can perform a three-point turn, and can honk the horn.
Grockman is also selling ad space on the car. Protos reported that two slots have already been bought by crypto traders promoting fly-themed memecoins, “$FLYCOIN” and “$CARLA.”
Other experiments mentioned in the report include training the fly to solve a Rubik’s Cube and teaching it to play Beat Saber. Some developers said they exposed the brain to doomscrolling, while Wormuth’s latest project places it in a Facebook-style stimulus setting.
Matty Hempstead wrote on X: “I wireheaded the fly and forced it to doomscroll flytok. Dopamine neurons are measured and artificially enhanced to ensure maximum enjoyment. My goal is to create a fly that is happier than all other flies combined.”
AI researcher Evan Sinclair Smith said he uploaded the brain into Minecraft and created an in-game fly for it to pilot. Protos also said one of the strangest use cases came from AI developer Nico Christie, who claimed to have “turned the fly bisexual” after blocking its “mAL output” and measuring its spike responses to female and male fly brains.
The report says this is not a conscious fly on the internet
Protos noted that the project does not involve uploading a sentient fly to the internet. Smith said his Minecraft demo reconstructs the fly’s neural connections to adjust movement in the game, and described it as an interactive way to explore a connectome rather than evidence of consciousness or a full recreation of a living fly.