Market Overview
Volatility returned to the crypto sector this week, as macroeconomic headwinds impacted risk assets. Bitcoin (BTC) experienced a sharp decline, slipping back under $93K, while gold, silver, and other precious metals saw significant gains. The CMC Crypto Fear and Greed Index remains in neutral territory, and Bitcoin dominance has slightly increased as altcoin sectors have suffered.
AI Market Performance
The AI sector was unable to sustain its recent momentum following a liquidation event early Monday that sent most crypto markets tumbling. The AI sector saw its market capitalization decrease by $0.5 billion, a 2.1% decline week-over-week.
In line with this trend, most prominent AI tokens have relinquished a significant portion of their recent gains and are now trading in negative territory on the weekly timeframe. All but one of the top 10 largest AI tokens have experienced declines this week. Internet Computer (ICP) stands out as the sole exception, bucking the trend with a 28.8% week-over-week gain. Render (RENDER) and Virtuals Protocol (VIRTUAL) were significantly impacted, recording 15.1% and 15.6% week-over-week declines, respectively.
Despite the broader downturn, some smaller-cap tokens demonstrated resilience. These include:
- •Mind Network (FHE): +387.3% (driven by BytePlus cloud integration for encrypted AI and new PIPPIN supply-lock incentives)
- •PAAL AI (PAAL): +67.3% (due to chatbot integration with the Carbon Browser)
- •Oasis (ROSE): +48.6% (attributed to ROFL mainnet adoption for confidential AI and institutional RWA credit pilots)
- •UnifAI Network (UAI): +37% (following a KuCoin listing and participation in the Polymarket Builders Program)
Trending tokens have outperformed the market average this week, with a notable concentration of agent projects among them. This outperformance is also evident in the AI Agents subsector, where half of the top 10 companies are showing positive gains despite the broader market decline.
Overall, the AI sector has been one of the worst-performing altcoin categories this week, ranking 22nd out of the 24 tracked sectors by Artemis. In contrast, the gaming sector ranked first, with a 14.4% week-over-week improvement in fully diluted market capitalization.
AI News Roundup
Internet Computer Unveils "Mission 70" Whitepaper: The DFINITY Foundation has introduced a comprehensive tokenomics overhaul designed to reduce ICP inflation by 70% by the end of 2026. This plan emphasizes aggressive supply cuts and accelerated cycle burn through decentralized AI applications.
Riot Platforms Secures $311M AMD Data Center Deal: Bitcoin miner Riot Platforms has entered into a significant agreement to lease data center capacity to AMD at its Texas facility. This strategic move, funded by Bitcoin sales, signals a pivot for the company towards high-performance computing and AI infrastructure.
https://twitter.com/RiotPlatforms/status/2012166339511656917
Golem Network Partners With Salad To Capture Web2 Demand: Golem Network has announced a strategic partnership with Salad to integrate Web2 workloads into its decentralized infrastructure. This engineering trial will allow Golem to leverage Salad's commercial GPU demand, testing the viability of permissionless, crypto-based settlement for mainstream computation tasks.
https://twitter.com/golemproject/status/2011090366490149273
OpenLedger and Theoriq Bring Verifiable AI to DeFi: OpenLedger and Theoriq have announced a strategic alliance to enable verifiable, on-chain execution for autonomous AI agents. This partnership aims to transform experimental AI "black boxes" into accountable financial actors with auditable logic for DeFi users.
https://twitter.com/OpenledgerHQ/status/2012155874220093583
That’s a wrap! Join us next week for more on the latest AI developments!