Artificial intelligence crypto tokens have surged over the past week ahead of a highly anticipated second-quarter earnings report from tech giant Nvidia.
As Arijit Sarkar reports via CoinTelegraph.com, the market capitalization of artificial intelligence and big data cryptocurrency projects and tokens has surged by 79.7% over the past three weeks, reflecting renewed confidence among crypto investors.
On Aug. 6, the total market cap of AI and big data crypto projects recorded a yearly low of $18.21 billion, primarily due to its indirect reliance on the underperforming price of Bitcoin and crypto markets in general. At the time, Bitcoin’s price fell sharply under $50,000, according to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView.
Market capitalization and volume of AI and big data tokens market. Source: CoinMarketCap
Specifically, AI-focused tokens such as Near Protocol, Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (FET), Bittensor (TAO) and Render (RENDER) have seen gains outpace the broader crypto market over the past week.
Proof-of-stake layer-1 network Near’s native token surged 35% over the past week to hit a four-week high of $5.20 on Aug. 25.
Artificial Superintelligence Alliance — a consortium of Fetch.ai, Ocean Protocol and SingularityNET — saw even bigger gains, with its FET token surging almost 70% in a week to reach $1.39 on Aug. 26.
Onchain analytics platform Lookonchain observed the big gains and noted strange whale transaction behavior in FET in an Aug. 26 X post.
It noted that a whale “seemed to regret selling” at a lower price before spending $2.38 million Tether to repurchase 1.79 million FET tokens from Binance at a higher price of $1.33 on Aug. 25.
FET price, one week chart. Source: Cointelegraph
Other AI-affiliated crypto assets outperforming at the time of writing include TAO, which has gained 26% over the past week, topping $350 on Aug. 26.
RENDER is also up around 40% over the past seven days, climbing to $6.45 on Aug. 26, according to CoinGecko.
Most major AI tokens have fully recovered from the market crash earlier in August.
The surge in AI-related assets comes as markets prepare for one of the year’s most significant tech firm earnings reports. On Wednesday, Aug. 28, Nvidia will release its Q2 results.
One of Wall Street’s most influential tech bulls, Wedbush Securities’ Dan Ives, told Fortune on Aug. 23 that this is “the most important tech earnings in years.”
He said he believes the tech bull market is driven by demand for new data center capacity, which is needed to power the plethora of AI chatbots that have emerged in recent years. In a note on Aug. 22, Ives wrote:
“There is one company in the world that is the foundation for the AI Revolution, and that is Nvidia.”
Mike Smith, a portfolio manager at Allspring Global Investments, told Reuters:
“Nvidia is the zeitgeist stock today,” before adding, “You can think of their earnings four times a year as the Super Bowl.”
Nvidia’s revenue jumped 18% between Q3 2023 and Q1 2024 and has surged 262% in the past year.
Nvidia stock has skyrocketed a whopping 180% over the past 12 months, hitting an all-time high of $135 in mid-June. Its stock has recovered 30% since the market dump in August and traded at just under $130 at the close of markets on Friday. Aug. 23.