Price breakouts have become rather short-lived in the crypto market recently, with the most recent case being Bitcoin’s (BTC) brief rally to $65,000 on Aug. 24.
According to data from Glassnode, traders have become more risk-averse and wary of using leverage to chase larger gains in the crypto market. In the Aug. 27 The Week Onchain Newsletter, the analysts explained that the “phenomenon” or reduced appetite for speculation and leverage is reflected by “a vast swathe of tokens now displaying a neutral funding rate,” suggesting that “spot markets are likely to be in the driver’s seat for the near term.”
Binance funding rate heatmap. Source: Glassnode
Despite Bitcoin giving back the bulk of its gains to trade below $59,000 on Aug. 27, Fetch.ai’s FET token has been a standout performer in the last 7 days. Since Aug. 5 — the day BTC price dropped to $49,500 — Artificial Superintelligence Alliance, which trades as FET has gained 80%.
Let's take a quick look at some of the factors driving FET’s performance.
Altcoins benefit from the AI narrative
Artificial intelligence-related tokens have been top performers in 2024 thanks to the emergence of various AI tools and the historic performance of Nvidia’s stock. Positive performance in Nvidia stock has been followed by strong rallies in AI tokens, including FET. The token also rallied when Nvidia issued positive earnings reports, and the chip maker is scheduled to report its quarterly results this week on Aug. 28.
AI token performance. Source: CoinGecko
FET’s value has risen by more than 500% over the past 12 months and 90% year-to-date. Agents (or programmable autonomous digital avatars) are one of the primary use cases of Fetch.ai. Through the AgentVerse platform, the autonomous agents can be tasked with searching, connecting and transacting in marketplaces on behalf of users and businesses.
The AgentVerse is essentially a Software as a Service (SaaS) platform. Ideally, the Fetch.ai team hopes that its AI agents will be used to redefine monetization strategy and also execute user requests like hotel and flight booking optimization, along with managing electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
Related: Grayscale launches new decentralized AI fund
On June 13 Fetch.ai, Ocean Protocol and SingularityNET merged to form the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (ASI) with the goal of combining each protocol’s AI features to create a vertically integrated tech stack. Tokens from OCEAN and AGIX are in the process of being converted to FET. As news of the alliance emerged, FET price rallied to an all-time high at $3.48.
In the months following the merger, FET price declined alongside the wider altcoin market, finding what appears to be a bottom at $0.70 on Aug. 5. This sharp drawdown took FET price back to its December 2023 range, which is eyebrow-raising.
FET/USDT 1-week chart. Source: TradingView
Historically, the crypto market has been riddled with narrative-driven hype cycles, and while it may be an unpopular opinion, the AI sector may become saturated with multiple identical solutions that don’t necessarily align with consumer demand or have the right type of product-to-market fit.
In the short term, AI token investors are likely to watch closely Nvidia’s earnings report, which is scheduled to be released on Wednesday, August 28.
This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.