The AI sector boomed as macroeconomic sentiment improved.
TL;DR…
- The AI sector boomed as macroeconomic sentiment improved
- Bittensor (TAO) reclaimed the No. 1 spot while AI Agent tokens soared
- Solana-based AI startup Nous raised $50 million at a $1 billion valuation
As the CMC Crypto Fear and Greed Index improved to neutral, the AI sector returned with a bang this week.
The sector added more than $3 billion to its market capitalization (mcap) thanks to the exceptional performance of Bittensor (TAO) and the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (FET).
Improving macroeconomic and sector-specific conditions paint a positive picture for the future.
Market Overview
Source: BTC Coin Page
Bitcoin temporarily reclaimed the $95,000 price point following massive ETF inflows, a huge buy from Saylor's Strategy (formerly Microstrategy), and the Federal Reserve adopting a permissive stance on banks and their crypto activities.
AI Sector Recap
The AI sector hit a $31.9 billion mcap this week, returning to levels seen in early March 2025.
Roughly 60% of AI tokens are in the green over the last week. The best performers among the top 100 include:
- Virtuals Protocol (VIRTUAL): gained 71.1%
- TARS AI (TAI): gained 67.7%
- Bubblemaps (BMT): gained 66.7%
- Spectral (SPEC): gained 55.9%
Meanwhile, several AI agent tokens in the Coin Terminal and Virtuals ecosystems tacked on over 100% this week, including:
- AI Agent Layer (AIFUN): gained 140.1%
- Casper AI (AIAGENT): gained 126.7%
- GAME by Virtuals (GAME): gained 111.9%
Source: Top AI Tokens Page
Bittensor (TAO) topped the AI token rankings while Fartcoin (FARTCOIN) put the brakes on the gas and stayed flat this week.
But not all AI tokens fared quite so well.
- Zerebro (ZEREBRO): lost 39%
- AI Companions (AIC): lost 31.3%
- tokenbot (CLANKER): lost 25.9%
- Act I: The AI Prophecy (ACT): lost 23.3%
Source: DefiLlama
Per DefiLlama, the AI sector is now the third-best-performing sector this week, achieving a 9.2% mcap-weighted gain.
AI News Roundup
A brief rundown of this week’s biggest stories:
Paradigm Bets $50M on Solana-Powered AI Lab Nous: Crypto VC Paradigm led a $50 million Series A for Nous Research, valuing the Solana-based decentralized AI lab at about $1 billion. Funds will scale open-source “Hermes” models and a global idle-compute training network.
http://twitter.com/TheBlock__/status/1915769791576502326
Nvidia’s Inception Shuts Out Crypto Startups: Nvidia updated its Inception accelerator rules, explicitly barring cryptocurrency-focused startups while doubling down on AI ventures, signaling a strategic pivot toward higher-growth AI markets and away from the blockchain sector. (source)
NEAR Alliance Funds Decentralized GPU Cloud: Compute layer Exabits won a NEAR Foundation grant to merge its tokenized GPU clusters with NEAR’s AI tools, offering on-demand H100/H200 resources and privacy-preserving TEEs for user-owned AI apps.
https://twitter.com/exa_bits/status/1916915818463694892
>> Check in next week for more AI news, developments, and updates!
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