Artificial intelligence (AI) crypto tokens are falling short of their lofty 2024 goals despite Nvidia’s (NVDA) recent conference generating bullish sentiment among AI stocks in traditional markets.
Last March, the NEAR token doubled in the run-up to Nividia’s annual conference, gains that were reflected across the broader AI crypto market. Fetch.AI (FET), chart (GRT), and singularityNET (AGIX) all posted major upside rallies in unison with the conference.
This year, however, AI tokens have proven their fragility. NEAR is down more than 8% in the last 24 hours, while FET is down almost 9%. NVDA, on the other hand, started the year trading at $133 and rose 15% to $153 on Monday as the conference began.
There are several reasons why AI tokens are no longer receiving the attention they once did. One of them is the emergence of AI agent tokens, which share similarities with memecoins due to their volatile nature and cult following. Investors are more inclined to trade these tokens as they have the potential to make triple, or even four-digit profits, compared to regular AI tokens, which are harder to move due to their higher market caps. And like memecoins, AI agent tokens also have more potential for deeper losses.
Another reason is simply lack of interest; Google search trend shows that searches for “NEAR token” and “Fetch.ai” have decreased by 47% and 84% respectively since March.
The fall from grace is not surprising, the cryptocurrency market is very fickle and has a habit of punishing sectors that grow rapidly speculatively. Last year’s rally was exactly this: people invested in AI tokens because they believed it would be the main narrative of the cryptocurrency bull market, but instead, it was bitcoin that stole the show with tens of billions of dollars in ETF inflows and bullish sentiment around Donald. Trump’s presidential victory.
However, AI tokens are still in their infancy. Few crypto AI projects were widely used, as many of the products were still being built. Meanwhile, Nvidia announced a $3,000 mini supercomputer called Digits, which will be available for purchase in May.
