Grayscale flags AI crypto winners in $15bn sector after September surge
Grayscale research says AI-linked tokens beat the wider crypto market in September, with NEAR up 183%, and sees possible major winners in the sector over five years.
Why it matters: Grayscale's research puts a figure on AI-linked crypto and names the tokens it sees as exposed to agent payments, identity and private computing.
Key points
- AI tokens rose 54% in September against 24% for the broader market, a 30 percentage point gap, per Grayscale's Oct. 2 analysis.
- NEAR led highlighted projects with a 183% monthly gain, followed by Venice's VVV at 70%, World's WLD at 47% and Bittensor's TAO at 37%.
- Grayscale's Decentralized AI Fund kept NEAR and Bittensor in its August rebalance alongside Render and Filecoin.
AI crypto tokens outperformed the wider market in September, according to an analysis by Grayscale. Zach Pandl, the digital asset manager's head of research, published the findings on Oct. 2 and tied the move to the emerging economy of software agents that transact on users' behalf.
The AI sector is worth roughly $15 billion, the smallest of Grayscale's six crypto sectors, yet its monthly gain beat the broader market by 30 percentage points.
September outperformance
Grayscale highlighted four tokens. NEAR rose 183% in September, Venice's VVV 70%, World's WLD 47% and Bittensor's TAO 37%. NEAR supports automated commerce and launched an AI Agent Market on Feb. 4, while World, co-founded by OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, focuses on proving a participant is human.
The analysis argues public blockchains can complement AI development that stays concentrated among a few companies, through agent payments, identity, verifiable records and private computing. Rodrigo Coelho of Edge and Node said such infrastructure could make autonomous agents' actions auditable, citing transaction capacity and shared reputation as scaling challenges. Grayscale also launched four model portfolios giving financial advisers diversified crypto exposure via exchange-traded products.
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