Artificial intelligence (AI) tokens outperformed the wider cryptocurrency market on Friday, with the sector's total market capitalization rising 5% over the past 24 hours to $15.1 billion, according to CoinGecko.
Bittensor's $TAO token was among the top gainers, trading at approximately $233, up nearly 9% on the day and 33% on the week. The Artificial Superintelligence Alliance token (FET) also climbed roughly 8%, while RENDER gained 11%.
Meanwhile, Venice AI’s VVV token surged 15% to a $300 million market capitalization.
A blog post from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang comparing the AI buildout to the historical impact of electrification helped drive bullish sentiment across AI-linked tokens earlier in the week.
“AI is becoming the foundational infrastructure of the modern world. And the choices we make now, how fast we build, how broadly we participate and how responsibly we deploy it, will shape what this era becomes,” Huang wrote.
The AI token rally unfolded against a backdrop of gradually improving crypto sentiment after Bitcoin reached as high as $74,000 earlier in the day. Still, the broader environment remains fragile as geopolitical tensions tied to the U.S.-Israel conflict with Iran continue to weigh on risk appetite.
