Why is the AI sector in cryptocurrencies still in its early stages of development? Let's take a look at some promising tokens in this category that were highlighted by analysts at Grayscale in their report.
Asset management company Grayscale has suggested that cryptocurrencies could become one of the tools for developing artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. Grayscale Research's analytics department has also published a list of the top 20 AI tokens that, in their opinion, are forming a new sector in the crypto market with huge growth potential.
Experts believe that AI technologies used in blockchain allow such projects to be classified as a separate sector in the crypto economy. Grayscale Research has now divided the blockchain market into the following categories, adding AI as a separate item:
Currencies. Assets that are used as a decentralized payment system and a means of storing capital (e.g., Bitcoin and XRP).
Smart contract platforms. Blockchain networks that provide the basic infrastructure for decentralized applications in the form of smart contracts (e.g., Ethereum and Solana).
Finance. Financial applications that allow users to borrow, lend, and trade on the blockchain (e.g., Uniswap and Aave).
Consumption and culture. Decentralized media applications, gaming, and entertainment projects (e.g., Decentraland or Sandbox).
Artificial intelligence. Assets related to the development, production, or application of artificial intelligence technologies (e.g., Bittensor, Near, and Grass).
Infrastructure. Services that extend the functionality of existing decentralized applications (e.g., Chainlink, Filecoin, and Lido).
Grayscale Research believes that AI built on decentralized principles can complement centralized AI technologies. Moreover, over the past year, these applications have become the most discussed topic in the crypto market, and many new tokens have reached a sufficient threshold in terms of market capitalization and liquidity to be included in the crypto sector. Below is a list of the top 20 tokens, according to experts.
This sector includes 20 assets with a combined market capitalization of approximately $20 billion. With this size, the artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency sector is the smallest segment of the market, representing approximately 0.67% of the total market capitalization. By comparison, finance, the third-largest sector, has a market capitalization of approximately $519 billion. In our opinion, the relatively modest size of this cryptocurrency sector reflects the early stage of many projects. The market for blockchain-based AI applications is potentially very large. And we believe that the AI sector in cryptocurrencies will grow both in absolute terms and relative to the rest of the market," the report noted.
Prospects for AI
Discussions about AI optimizing business and other areas have been a hot topic in various communities for many years. According to forecasts, experts expect deeper synergy between the cryptocurrency and AI markets.
At the end of 2024, Coinbase Ventures analyst Jonathan King suggested that AI could be built on blockchain technology, where multiple individual AIs would begin to interact in a shared space, stimulating economic activity and growth. Experts from the traditional finance sector are also paying attention to this trend — for example, analysts at Franklin Templeton noted that “the maturation of this emerging sector is worth watching.”
Speaking at the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas, Vlad Tenev, CEO of brokerage firm Robinhood, said that “one-person companies” powered by artificial intelligence will become the norm, according to Decrypt.
“I think you're going to have more one-person companies. Imagine that they are tokenized, trading on blockchains alongside other assets. So you can essentially invest in a person or the economic activity of a project run by one person,” Tenev said.
However, venture capitalists do not consider the synergy between blockchain and AI to be the most promising investment. As of March 2025, venture capital funding in the US since the beginning of January amounted to approximately $822 million for 167 projects. Only one of them involves the development of AI technologies. The global indicator for investments in AI crypto projects without jurisdiction was 55 projects.
