EXCLUSIVE: ‘The AI Tag Is Free’: Crypto Is Finally Charging for AI Hype

Crypto’s AI trade is starting to look less like a rising tide and more like a stock-picker’s market. Capital is flowing into a handful of projects while hundreds of AI-labeled tokens struggle for attention.

CoinMarketCap’s Alice Liu says that shift signals something important: investors are finally demanding more than an AI narrative.

AI Capital Gets Selective

"More capital, fewer names. The AI tag is free; the market is finally charging for it," Liu, Head of Research at CoinMarketCap, told Benzinga in an exclusive email interview.

CoinMarketCap’s AI & Big Data category currently spans about 945 tokens with a combined market capitalization of $18.5 billion, or roughly 0.7% of the $2.64 trillion crypto market, Liu told Benzinga.

But the headline number masks a sharp concentration of capital. Fewer than one in 10 of those 945 tokens clears both a $20 million market-cap threshold and $1 million in daily trading volume, according to Liu.

That creates a stark divide between having an AI label and attracting meaningful market participation.

A Few Tokens Pull Ahead

The strongest projects are increasingly separating themselves from the broader category.

Venice AI’s token nearly doubled over the past month (as of Sept. 10) to about $1.1 billion, while Bittensor’s TAO gained 24% over 30 days and reached a $2.8 billion market cap, making it the largest pure-AI token in CoinMarketCap’s data. NEAR also gained 27% over the week covered by the interview.