As Bitcoin rebounded above $93,000, AI-related tokens in the crypto market also regained vitality and became early beneficiaries of the latest round of market movements. The rekindling of AI and crypto narratives, coupled with the orderly entry of institutional funds, is driving the entire market into a new round of "narrative + funds" resonance cycle.
AI tokens rebounded strongly, and sub-sectors doubled
According to Coingecko data, multiple AI sub-sectors have risen by more than 40% in the past week. The most aggressive gains include the VIRTUAL token of AI agent incubation platform Virtuals Protocol and the AI agent protocol Eliza OS's AI16Z token, which rose by 123% and 89% respectively, and are now priced at $1.43 and $0.298. However, both are still far from their respective historical highs ($5.07 and $2.47), down 71% and 87% from their peaks, respectively.
This round of rebound also benefited from the promotion of other popular AI tokens, and the total market value of the entire AI agent track doubled, including infrastructure tokens and AI-inspired meme coin Fartcoin. The analysis platform Cookie.fun pointed out that as of April 7, the total market value of AI agent-related projects was about US$4.5 billion, covering more than 1,600 agents deployed on different blockchains. After a slight increase in the past 24 hours, this figure has now reached US$9.06 billion, indicating that market sentiment is clearly rising.
At the same time, blockchain projects highly tied to AI such as Bittensor (TAO) and Near Protocol (NEAR) also rose by more than 9% in the past week.
There is no clear single trigger for the AI sector’s market cap increase, but continued development and funding activity within the ecosystem may have supported sentiment. For example, Virtuals Protocol recently launched its Genesis launch mechanism to achieve fairer proxy token distribution. And crypto VCs remain active: According to Fortune, Paradigm is betting heavily on AI accelerator Nous Research, which just completed a $50 million funding round with a token valuation of $1 billion.
CoinGecko data shows that the broad AI sector as a whole has risen 14% in the past week, with a market value of nearly $26 billion. In comparison, Bitcoin and Ethereum have risen by 4% and 7.6%, respectively.
Institutions lead the rise of Bitcoin, while retail investors flow out of ETFs
Along with the rise in AI market value, Bitcoin is also rising.
Bitcoin's rally to $93,000 was driven primarily by institutional investors, not retail ETF buyers, said John D'Agostino of Coinbase Institutional.
The main force behind this round of Bitcoin's rise is not retail ETF funds, but the "patient capital" of large institutional investors. John D'Agostino, an executive of Coinbase Institutional, said on CNBC that this wave of market that began in early April was driven by the quiet entry of sovereign wealth funds and institutional investors, while retail investors were withdrawing spot ETFs.
This institutional confidence is accelerating into real-world deployment. This week, Strike CEO Jack Mallers and Cantor Fitzgerald's Brandon Lutnick jointly launched a new Bitcoin investment company, Twenty One Capital , which is backed by Tether, Bitfinex and SoftBank and will initially hold more than 42,000 Bitcoins. After completing a merger with a $200 million SPAC (Cantor Equity Partners), the company will be publicly traded under the stock code "XXI".
D'Agostino gave three core investment logics:
1. De-dollarization : Sovereign states and institutions begin to reduce their exposure to US dollar assets due to concerns about geopolitical and trade situations;
2. Decoupling from the technology sector : Bitcoin is gradually getting rid of the image of "an accessory of AI concept stocks";
3. Hedge Basket Theory : Bitcoin has become one of the top five inflation hedging asset portfolios of veteran commodity traders.
“Bitcoin is returning to its core properties: scarcity, immutability, and transferability of a non-sovereign asset. It is beginning to trade the way believers want it to.”
Despite Bitcoin’s strong upward momentum, major altcoins such as Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL) and Cardano (ADA) have yet to show corresponding technical breakthroughs. The CoinDesk 20 Index is down 3% over the past month, while Bitcoin is up 7%.
However, as prices rise, retail investors' interest in Bitcoin ETFs seems to be picking up. SoSoValue data shows that from April 21 to 23, the net inflow of spot Bitcoin ETFs reached US$2.2 billion, with more than US$900 million on April 24 alone. Although ETFs as a whole still experienced 9 days of net outflows this month, totaling US$1.21 billion, signs of capital repatriation are emerging.
Summary: AI narrative and institutional confidence constitute dual driving forces
Driven by Bitcoin's rebound, the early winners of the new bull market have made a comeback, and the AI and cryptocurrency narrative has heated up again.
The current market rise is driven by two factors: the return of AI narratives and the technological progress of new projects, and the reaffirmation of the core value of Bitcoin by institutions. With narratives, capital and the macro landscape intertwined, the crypto market may be entering a new stage.
