Engineer turns a simulated fly brain into a dopamine fuelled crypto trader
Brain simulations are now cheap enough for hobbyists to wire into live markets, a glimpse of biology-inspired trading agents.
Key takeaways
- A Coinbase engineer has built Stonkfly, an open source project that turns a simulated fruit fly brain into a crypto day trader.
- The fly sees a candlestick price chart and gets a dopamine signal for profits, while losses and trading fees light up aversive cells.
- The simulated brain has 166,700 neurons and 25.6 million connections, and can bet up to $10 per order, 24 times a day.
- The author warns the project proves no real trading ability, since rising crypto prices can make any buyer look skilled.
Cite or link to this article
Griffin, M. (2026) 'Engineer turns a simulated fly brain into a dopamine fuelled crypto trader', Fanatical Futurist, 11 Sep 2026. Available at: https://www.fanaticalfuturist.com/2026/09/simulated-fly-brain-crypto-trader-stonkfly/
Simulating animal brains – a strange form of Artificial Intelligence (AI) research - seems to be the latest buzz. Hot on the heels of teaching a fly to play Doom, an engineer from the Coinbase cryptocurrency service has elected to turn one into a day trader with Stonkfly. If you want to see Stonk trade live, you can watch here.
The open source project has a simulation of a male fruit fly brain and eyes, and shows it a standard-issue candlestick graph with historical pricing. The fly can choose to buy, sell, or hold any given currency - although they get shown to the fly in round-robin fashion - and gets rewarded for profitable trading.
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A rising portfolio value triggers a dopamine rush as a positive reinforcement signal to 15 cells, while a loss lights up two aversive cells. Trading fees count as losses. The author notes there are no pain or emotional mechanisms at play. Displaying far better judgement than most human traders, the fly cannot use leveraged positions - trading multipliers - or shorts - betting on drops.
The brain has 166,700 neurons and 25.6 million connections. The virtual fly sees the graph as a 320x180 display across its left and right eyes, with an intersecting centre portion. The simulated photoreceptor cells get fed the RGB pixel values rather than pricing information. By default, the fly "thinks" and acts every 500 ms, and the market data gets refreshed every 60 seconds, and it can bet up to $10 on any one order, up to 24 times a day.
The author notes that this small project doesn't prove anything other than the connection between the input mechanisms, visual signals, and synapse changes. Naturally, he warns users against assuming that said changes are any indication of actual trading ability, especially in the face of a general rise in cryptocurrencies prices that "can make any buyer look skilled."
You can bet that some fly-brained investor will still infer meaning from the experiment, though.
If you're interested in getting your own Stonkfly, you need only download the repository on macOS - it's definitely a fruit fly - or Linux, have 16 GB of RAM available, and Python 3.11 and a C++ 17 compiler. The simulation defaults to using paper trades and $100 in virtual balance, but it uses real BTC-to-USDC data. There are instructions on how to set up a live account to see if your trading skills are a match for an insect.
FAQ
How does the Stonkfly fruit fly trader work?
Stonkfly feeds a candlestick price chart into the simulated eyes of a male fruit fly brain as RGB pixels. The fly chooses to buy, sell or hold, and a rising portfolio triggers a dopamine reward in 15 cells while losses light up two aversive cells.
Can the simulated fly really trade crypto well?
No. The author says the project proves nothing beyond the connection between visual inputs and synapse changes, and warns that a general rise in cryptocurrency prices can make any buyer look skilled. The fly also cannot use leverage or short positions.
What do you need to run Stonkfly yourself?
You need macOS or Linux, 16 GB of RAM, Python 3.11 and a C++ 17 compiler. The simulation defaults to paper trades with $100 of virtual balance using real BTC-to-USDC data, and there are instructions for setting up a live account.
How big is the simulated fly brain?
The simulated brain has 166,700 neurons and 25.6 million connections. It sees the price chart as a 320x180 display across its left and right eyes, thinks and acts every 500 milliseconds, and receives fresh market data every 60 seconds.
About the author
Matthew Griffin Founder, 311 Institute
Matthew Griffin is a multi-award winning Futurist and expert in Disruption and Innovation, Geopolitics, Leadership, and Technology, who NASA have described as a "walking encyclopaedia of the future" and a "futurist Polymath."
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Matthew Griffin is a multi-award winning Futurist and expert in Disruption and Innovation, Geopolitics, Leadership, and Technology, who NASA have described as a "walking encyclopaedia of the future" and a "futurist Polymath." 17-time best selling author of the "Codex of the Future" series, Matthew is the Founder and Futurist in Chief of the 311 Institute, a global Futures and Deep Futures advisory firm working with royal households, world leaders, G7, G20, and G77 governments, NGOs, and multi-national mid and mega cap firms to help them explore, shape, and lead the next 50 years of business and society.
An award-winning YouTube creator with over a million followers, with an unrivalled global reach and impact, Matthew is a highly sought-after international keynote speaker, lecturer, and mentor who collaborates with global leaders through the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) and United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to shape pivotal initiatives such as the UN’s AI for Humanity program, the United Nations Conference of the Parties (UN COP), and the World Economic Forum in Davos.
As the former Global Head of Cloud, National Security, and Enterprise Sales for companies including Atos, Dell-EMC, and IBM, Matthew has a proven track record of building multi-billion dollar business units and turning failing divisions into market leaders. His ability to identify, analyse, and communicate the implications of hundreds of emerging technologies and trends is unparalleled, and his insights are trusted by many of the world’s most respected organisations, including ABB, Accenture, Adidas, AON, ARM, BCG, Centrica, Citi, Coca-Cola, Dentons, Deloitte, Dow Jones, EY, Google, KPMG, Lego, Legal & General, LinkedIn, Microsoft, PepsiCo, Qualcomm, RWE, Samsung, Siemens AG and Siemens Energy, T-Mobile, UBS, VISA, Walmart, Workday, Worldpay and many others.
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Source: first published by Fanatical Futurist on 11 Sep 2026. You are welcome to quote this article with credit and a link to the original.