tl;dr
Donut, a crypto-native browser designed for autonomous AI agents, raised $7 million in pre-seed funding led by Hongshan, BITKRAFT Ventures, and HackVC, among others. The browser integrates crypto wallets, networks, and decentralized exchanges into a unified interface, enabling users and AI agents to...
Donut, a crypto-native browser designed for autonomous AI agents, has raised $7 million in pre-seed funding led by Hongshan, BITKRAFT Ventures, and HackVC among others. This innovative browser integrates crypto wallets, networks, and decentralized exchanges (DEXs) into one unified interface, allowing both users and AI agents to discover tokens, trade assets, and earn yield directly within the browsing environment.
The platform is powered by an AI model specifically trained for crypto contexts and utilizes autonomous agents to execute trades and smart contract interactions automatically. This approach helps reduce the cognitive load on users in the fast-paced world of cryptocurrency markets.
Donut’s founder and CEO, Chris Zhu, emphasized the browser’s unique design by stating that traditional browsers were not built for crypto or autonomous agents, and that Donut aims to rebuild the internet’s front-end to be agent-driven, hyper-financialized, and contextually rich.
Supporting this vision is Donut’s Chief Scientist, Tim Fan, formerly an AI researcher at Carnegie Mellon University and Meta AI, who leads the company’s technical development. The autonomous browser agents leverage a headless browsing engine layered with the CodeAct framework and MCP Client to parse data, simulate decisions, and transact efficiently at scale.
The new funding will accelerate Donut’s product development, talent acquisition, and community growth as the company prepares for a wider launch. Open roles include prompt engineers, AI scientists, graphic designers, and community growth leads.
Donut stands out by merging agentic computing, headless execution, embedded finance, and autonomous market participation into a single browsing experience, transforming crypto browsing from passive content consumption into an active, real-time financial participation hub.