Artificial intelligence cryptocurrency raises record $ 140 billion amid global crypto market losses

Over the past six months, the cryptocurrency market has lost about $ 1.16 trillion in capitalization, while the artificial intelligence sector has attracted about $ 140 billion since February 2026. Against this backdrop, the gap between traditional AI investments and AI-related crypto assets has grown significantly: the total valuation of AI tokens is currently only about 15 billion.

Analysts note that the crypto market has been under pressure for more than six months, and capital outflows continue due to a decrease in investors' risk appetite. This is one of the deepest drops in capitalization in recent years. At the same time, artificial intelligence companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic continue to actively raise funding, which emphasizes the difference between the two segments.

Technical data also confirms the change in public interest. According to Google Trends statistics, global interest in AI has been consistently higher than interest in cryptocurrencies since 2021, and the current gap is the largest in almost five years. Nevertheless, the attention to AI has not led to a steady increase in the value of AI-related tokens.

Maria Carola, CEO of StealthEX, explained that the problem lies in monetization: most AI investments are directed not to tokenized ecosystems but to corporate products, infrastructure, and computing power. According to her, the segment at the intersection of blockchain and artificial intelligence is still at an early stage of development.

AI tokens remain tied to the overall crypto market cycle. The examples of Fetch. ai (FET) and Virtual Protocol (VIRTUAL) show that they move in sync with the digital asset market and grow during general recoveries. According to Karola, the situation may change once demand for risky assets returns, especially if decentralized data markets, GPU networks, and autonomous onchain systems start playing a more prominent role in the global AI economy.