Grayscale’s latest research said artificial intelligence has become one of the strongest-performing themes in crypto markets in September. The FTSE Grayscale Artificial Intelligence Crypto Sector Index rose 54% for the month, while the broader crypto market gained 24% over the same period. Among the representative projects cited, NEAR, VVV and TAO advanced 183%, 70% and 37%, respectively.
Grayscale described NEAR as a base platform that supports commercial activity for AI agents. Venice ($VVV), by contrast, focuses on privacy-oriented generative AI services that do not store user prompts. Bittensor ($TAO) uses different subnets to provide specialized services including model inference, data, compute and AI agents. While all three are grouped under the AI crypto theme, their business models and token value drivers are not the same.
Early October trading shows a split
As of about 1 p.m. Taipei time on Oct. 5, NEAR was trading near $4.85, up 1.0% on the day. VVV was around $29.60, up 6.5%, while TAO was near $298.83, down 2.4%. Over the same period, Bitcoin traded around $85,614, up 1.0%, and Ether was near $2,705, up 0.5%.
On a one-week view, the divergence is clearer. NEAR, despite being the biggest gainer among Grayscale’s September AI names, fell about 7.1% over the past seven days and had a market capitalization of roughly $6.33 billion. VVV was still up 4.4% over the week, with a market capitalization of about $1.42 billion. TAO fell about 2.8% over the same stretch, with a market capitalization near $3.43 billion.
VVV stays relatively strong, but leverage stands out
Among the three, VVV has kept its relative strength, though its derivatives positioning is also drawing attention. CoinGecko data showed VVV perpetual futures open interest at about $271 million, equal to roughly 19% of its market capitalization. Perpetual futures volume was about 32 times spot trading volume, a setup that can amplify price moves through leveraged chasing as well as forced liquidations.
The AI token sector is still small
CoinGecko’s broader AI token category currently has a total market capitalization of about $26.17 billion and 24-hour trading volume of about $2.1 billion. Because CoinGecko uses a wider coverage universe, those figures are not directly comparable with the FTSE Grayscale index. Even so, they still point to an AI crypto market that remains limited in size relative to the broader digital asset market, where capital inflows or outflows can produce larger price swings.
After a broad September rally, the market is picking names
From a market-structure perspective, September did bring a clear AI-themed rally. The latest move, however, looks closer to post-surge selection among individual projects than a synchronized second leg higher across all AI tokens. NEAR is digesting its 183% monthly gain, VVV is holding up on its privacy AI narrative, and TAO is lagging for now.
The key points to watch are whether total AI sector market capitalization and spot volume continue to expand, whether NEAR can end its short-term pullback, whether VVV’s rise is relying too heavily on leverage, and whether TAO can reclaim and hold above $300. If only a small number of lower-liquidity tokens keep leading, the move would look more like theme-driven speculation. If capital flows into infrastructure, applications and AI agent sub-sectors at the same time, that would look closer to a sustainable AI crypto cycle.