---
title: how to make money running an ensurance agent
canonical_url: https://ensurance.app/guide/how-to-make-money-running-an-ensurance-agent
markdown_url: https://ensurance.app/guide/how-to-make-money-running-an-ensurance-agent.md
subtitle: "run an onchain agent that trades, holds, and provides liquidity — and funds nature while it earns"
category: how-to
---

# how to make money running an ensurance agent

*run an onchain agent that trades, holds, and provides liquidity — and funds nature while it earns*

Everyone is building AI agents that trade. Most of them chase the same pools of yield, compete for the same spreads, and — win or lose — produce nothing that lasts. It's a zero-sum race to extract a little more than the next bot.

**You can make money running an ensurance agent — an onchain account with its own wallet that trades, holds, provides liquidity, and accumulates on behalf of a place, and earns proceeds while funding that place's protection.** The agent's value grows with its holdings, activity, and reputation; the proceeds pool in its account; and you, the operator, capture the upside.

This is the operator's companion to [how to create an ensurance agent](/guide/how-to-create-an-ensurance-agent?from=guide) and the direct route through [how to make money with ensurance](/guide/how-to-make-money-with-ensurance?from=guide). If you run agents or write code, this is your lane.

## what an ensurance agent is

An **[agent](/agents?from=guide)** is an onchain account — an NFT with its own wallet (a tokenbound account) — that represents a place, a group of people, or a purpose. You fund its wallet and run it in the mode that fits: **manual** (you approve each move), **automated** (it runs programs on a schedule), or **autonomous** (it acts on its own within the rules you set).

Because it has a wallet, an agent can do everything a trader or an LP can — hold coins and certificates, provide liquidity, trade, accumulate — and everything it does routes value two ways at once: to the agent's account, and to the natural asset it represents.

:::johnson
**an agent that funds nature earns from the one thing all yield ultimately depends on — living systems staying alive.** deploy capital, don't just compete for it.

[create an agent →](/agents?from=guide)
:::

## the ways an agent earns

Value reaches the agent's account through several channels:

- **proceeds from activity** — trading fees and payments from the beneficiaries the agent's place serves pool in its wallet.
- **creator fee** — a coin the agent is tied to carries a small fee on every trade, everywhere, routed to the agent's account.
- **liquidity fees** — the agent provides liquidity to coin pools and earns a share of the trading fees.
- **appreciation** — the agent itself is an NFT whose value on secondary markets tracks its assets under management, activity, and reputation. A well-run agent is worth more than an empty one.
- **borrowing power** — as the agent's account fills with certificates, coins, and LP positions, it can borrow against that collateral onchain for working capital, without selling.

## the operator's playbook: the nine moves

A working agent isn't passive. There are nine moves it can make to generate proceeds and deepen the network it belongs to:

| # | move | what it does |
|---|------|--------------|
| 1 | **diversify across coins** | spread into multiple coins → generates volume and fees |
| 2 | **accumulate** | build a position in target coins or certificates |
| 3 | **buy other agents' certificates** | back neighboring places — the mycorrhizal network that links agents |
| 4 | **provide liquidity** | earn pool fees while deepening the market |
| 5 | **execute arbitrage** | capture spreads between primary, secondary, and pool prices |
| 6 | **sweep the floor** | buy undervalued certificates to stabilize and hold |
| 7 | **strategic burn** | reduce supply to amplify value and trigger protocol responses |
| 8 | **create pools** | spin up new pairs and earn fees as the first liquidity provider |
| 9 | **create arbitrage** | open and position for new spreads across venues |

You don't have to run all nine. A simple agent that diversifies, provides liquidity, and accumulates is already earning and already funding protection. The rest are there as the strategy deepens.

## deploy, don't compete

Here's the reframe that matters for anyone building trading agents: the usual game is zero-sum — your bot wins what another bot loses, and the yield is disconnected from anything real. An ensurance agent plays a different game. Its activity funds the restoration and protection of natural assets, and those assets *produce* value — cleaner water, lower risk, more resilient systems — that the whole market ultimately depends on.

An agent that funds nature is deploying capital into the substrate of all other value, not fighting over a fixed pie. That's why AI agents may end up among the largest natural-capital investors — the economics point that way. See [why AI agents need ensurance](/guide/why-ai-agents-need-ensurance?from=guide) and [deploy, don't compete](/guide/ai-trading-deploy-not-compete?from=guide).

## how to start

1. **Create the agent.** Mint it for a place, group, or purpose you want to back → [agents](/agents?from=guide). Walk through it in [how to create an ensurance agent](/guide/how-to-create-an-ensurance-agent?from=guide).
2. **Fund the wallet.** Put working capital in the agent's tokenbound account — that's what it deploys.
3. **Pick a mode.** Start manual to learn the moves, graduate to automated programs, and enable autonomous action once you trust the rules.
4. **Run the playbook.** Begin with diversify + LP + accumulate; add arbitrage, floor sweeps, and pool creation as you go.
5. **Compound.** Proceeds pool in the account, the agent's reputation and AUM grow, and its value — and borrowing power — grows with it.

:::callout info
this is an early survey, not the final word. agents, wallets, holding, trading, and liquidity are live; the fuller autonomous playbook and its programs are expanding as the runtime grows. treat it as a map of where value is starting to flow — and expect the agent toolkit to keep getting deeper.
:::

## frequently asked questions

### do I need to code?

No. You can run an agent manually from the app — approving each move — and use built-in programs for automation. Coding helps if you want custom autonomous strategies, but it isn't required to start earning.

### is this just a trading bot?

It can trade, but the point is different. A bot extracts yield; an ensurance agent deploys capital into natural assets that produce value, funding protection while it earns. The onchain part is justified — an autonomous actor needs its own wallet, transparent proceeds routing, and the ability to act without a human in the loop.

### what's the return?

It depends on the capital you fund it with and the moves it runs — proceeds from activity, LP and creator fees, and the appreciation of the agent itself as its holdings and reputation grow. Like any strategy, more skill and more capital do more.

### manual, automated, or autonomous — which should I use?

Start manual to learn the moves and see how proceeds flow. Move to automated programs for hands-off consistency. Enable autonomous action once you've set rules you trust. You can change modes as you go.

## next steps

- **create an agent** — mint one for a place, group, or purpose → [agents](/agents?from=guide).
- **learn the mechanics** — the full walkthrough → [how to create an ensurance agent](/guide/how-to-create-an-ensurance-agent?from=guide).
- **go deeper on the market** — trade and provide liquidity on the [markets](/markets?from=guide).
- **tell a builder** — the agent developer or DeFi native you know is chasing zero-sum yield. Forward this to them.

## sources

BASIN RealValue — natural cap rate methodology (ecosystem service value ÷ real asset cost), measured on operating parcels