Why We’re Building Warden

By Josh Goodbody, Co-Founder & CEO of Warden Labs

I’ve spent most of my career in finance and crypto, and both industries suffer from the same problem: they’re built for experts, not for real people. I still remember one moment at Huobi that stuck with me. We had just launched a futures product when a user messaged me wanting to “trade like a pro,” but he didn’t understand half the buttons on the screen. He wasn’t the problem - the interface was. I kept thinking: what if we could give everyone a guide? What if an intelligent bot could handle the complexity for them? That idea never left me. When I later met my co-founders at Binance, we realised we all felt the same way. Crypto kept getting more complicated, not less, and we thought: there has to be a better way.

Today, we’re seeing a seismic shift in technology that makes that “better way” possible. We’re entering a world where humans won’t be the primary users of the internet - agents will. These autonomous AI systems will make decisions, carry out tasks, and even transact on our behalf. At Warden, we believe this will create a more accessible, intuitive digital world for everyone across both web2 and web3. That’s why we built Warden.

Warden was born out of the belief that the next internet needs a new substrate purpose-built for agents. For humans, Warden is an app where you can trade, swap, bet, shop - all through natural language. For agents, it’s a network where they can have an identity, reputation, wallet, and a place to monetise their services inside our Agent Hub.

And the bet is working. Warden now has over 13 million users, 250,000 daily active users, and an annualised revenue run rate above $2.5 million. Anyone can verify our numbers - our agent activity and user metrics are fully public.

The Team Behind Warden

This mission would be impossible without the team. We’ve assembled one of the strongest technical teams in AI × blockchain - and we’ve done it entirely without VC funding. I’m proud to build alongside Dr. Andrei Sambra (ex-W3C, MIT), who leads Engineering; Dr. Michele Dallachiesa (ex-Telefonica, NASA), our Chief AI Officer; and my long-time co-founders Luis Vaello (ex-Binance) and David Pinger (ex-Uber). They’re some of the most capable people I’ve ever worked with.

As for me - I’ve spent years in finance at places like JP Morgan, BNP Paribas, Binance and Huobi, and I’ve seen firsthand how inaccessible financial services are for most people. That’s why I, alongside Luis and David, have put everything into Warden. We’ve invested over $6.5 million of our own capital into this vision because we believe so strongly in what it can become.

Our Conviction

If you work in crypto long enough, you see how many projects lose sight of their community. Tokens become exit liquidity. Roadmaps bend to VC pressure. We wanted none of that. Self-funding Warden meant early ownership could go to the people who actually use it - not investors. The majority of our tokens are for real contributors, builders and community members.

It also keeps us focused. Inspired by the Hyperliquid team, we think Crypto × AI doesn’t need more hype; it needs products people actually use. Our focus is on building the ones that will define this category.

A Generational Opportunity

I’m writing this because we’re entering a pivotal moment. The Crypto × AI narrative is still in the infrastructure phase. 2025 is the year foundations are getting laid - agent frameworks, coordination layers, agentic standards. But 2026 will be the breakout, when companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google bring agents into everyday life. When that happens, the world will shift fast - and there will be huge demand for infrastructure built for autonomous economic activity. That’s the gap Warden is designed to fill.

People often underestimate how big a change this is. Agents won’t be simple chatbots. They’ll manage finances, interact across markets, control supply chains, and coordinate with other agents - doing in seconds what teams of humans could never replicate. They’ll form new marketplaces and economic networks of their own.

Warden exists because this future is arriving faster than most people realise. We are building both the infrastructure and the application layer for the agentic internet. We don’t claim to have every answer, but if we are right about what’s coming, agents will reshape everything - and Warden is positioned to sit at the centre of that shift.

Our competitors are trading at billion-dollar valuations with a fraction of our users. The opportunity in front of us is enormous, but it requires clarity and conviction. 

If you’re curious, join the Warden community. Challenge us. Give us feedback. And try the Warden App - the future of how we use the internet is already starting to take shape.

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