AI-linked crypto tokens popped Monday after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang painted a bullish vision for the next phase of AI at the company’s GTC keynote — and traders rushed to bet that blockchain will play a role in that future.
Notable movers:
- NEAR climbed more than 10% to $1.4481, its strongest level since late January.
- FET (Artificial Superintelligence Alliance) spiked as much as 20% intraday before trimming gains.
- WLD, the identity-focused project co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, rose roughly 10% to $0.3877 — near $0.40 and its best showing since early March.
- GRASS, a decentralized network that lets users monetize unused bandwidth for AI training, jumped about 13% to fresh 2026 highs.
Why the reaction? Huang used the keynote to underscore Nvidia’s central role in AI infrastructure, saying the company expects roughly $1 trillion in chip demand backlog through 2027, with hyperscale cloud providers accounting for roughly 60% of that business. He also spotlighted the rapid rise of “agentic” AI systems, praising the viral OpenClaw developer project and announcing an enterprise-focused adaptation called NemoClaw — billed as a safer, enterprise-ready way to run autonomous AI agents without exposing sensitive data.
Although Huang didn’t mention crypto, many blockchain teams are already positioning their stacks as the rails and marketplaces for the next generation of autonomous agents: token-based coordination and payments, decentralized compute and training networks, identity layers, and other infrastructure that could let agents transact and scale outside centralized platforms. That narrative appears to be driving speculative flows into projects tied to identity, decentralized compute and agent infrastructure.
Nvidia stock, the oft-cited bellwether for the AI trade, initially jumped about 2% during the keynote and closed roughly 1.5% higher on the day — a reminder that traditional markets and crypto are both reacting to Nvidia’s roadmap for AI infrastructure.
Bottom line: Huang’s agent-focused vision for AI rekindled enthusiasm for crypto projects that pitch blockchain as an alternative backbone for autonomous agents and decentralized AI services — but watch for volatility as traders price in a complex, long-term transition from centralized to decentralized AI systems.
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