Crypto AI Track 2024 Review: From Infrastructure to the Boom of AI Agent

In 2024, the field of crypto AI has ushered in unprecedented development. From a handful of projects at the beginning of the year, this field has become an independent track in the crypto market that cannot be ignored by the end of the year.

According to the data, on December 7, the total asset market value of the crypto AI sector exceeded 70 billion US dollars, accounting for the highest proportion of 2% in the entire crypto market, with an annual growth rate of 400%. At the same time, the number of crypto AI projects has also exploded, currently exceeding 600, covering multiple categories such as decentralized AI infrastructure and AI Dapps.

Looking back at 2024, the narrative of crypto AI has undergone several major changes. At the beginning of the year, a breakthrough in Wensheng’s video technology ignited a hype boom in encrypted AI infrastructure. Subsequently, the convening of the annual AI conference pushed decentralized GPUs into the focus of market attention. In the middle of the year, the crypto AI track ushered in an investment boom, and many crypto projects received financial support, accelerating the process of technology research and development and application. At the end of the year, the explosion of AI Agent-related projects pushed the narrative of encrypted AI to a new climax.

! From Decentralized GPUs to AI Agents: A Review of the Narrative Evolution of the 2024 Crypto AI Track

The scale of crypto AI assets and the number of projects have increased significantly

According to the latest data, the number of tokens included in the crypto artificial intelligence sector has reached 355, and the total market value of its assets exceeded the $70 billion mark on December 7, peaking at $70.42 billion. Although the total market capitalization of the crypto AI sector fell back to $47 billion as of December 23 due to the overall market correction, the 24-hour trading volume was still as high as $5 billion.

At the beginning of the year, the total asset capitalization of the crypto AI sector was only $17 billion. In less than a year, the sector’s total asset market capitalization has increased by more than 400%, demonstrating the vigorous development and great potential of the crypto AI space.

Some analysts believe that although the current crypto AI sector only accounts for about 1% of the total market value of the crypto market, with the continuous evolution of the market cycle and the strong momentum of AI infrastructure and AI Agent, the market value of the sector is expected to increase by 10 times.

It is worth noting that the total market capitalization of the entire crypto market reached $3.4 trillion on December 23, and the market capitalization of crypto AI assets still accounts for nearly 1.4% of the entire market at this time, further proving its future market growth potential.

2024 can be described as a key turning point in the field of crypto AI from its embryonic to full-scale explosion. At the beginning of the year, the crypto AI track was still in its infancy, and the number of projects was limited. However, in the past less than a year, the crypto AI field has been divided into multiple subdivisions, covering multiple sub-tracks such as decentralized GPUs, AI data platforms, AI infrastructure, and AI agents, with hundreds of projects.

According to the data, there are currently more than 600 encrypted projects containing AI entries, and this number continues to increase.

! From Decentralized GPUs to AI Agents: A Review of the Narrative Evolution of the 2024 Crypto AI Track

The main driving force for the development of crypto AI in 2024

Looking at the data trend of the total market capitalization of crypto AI assets, the growth in 2024 shows two significant peaks: the first peak occurred between February and March, while the second occurred after October, ushering in a stronger wave of growth.

Between February and March, the growth of the crypto AI space was mainly due to the strong stimulus brought by two landmark events in the AI field.

In February, the release of the “Wensheng Video” model set off a subversive change in the field of AI. At the same time, the event also greatly contributed to the surge in the token price of iris-certified crypto projects, which in turn led to the strong growth of the entire crypto AI asset sector. During this period, high-quality projects such as AI model incentive platforms and AI data platforms began to attract widespread attention from the market, and the rise of these projects further ignited the investment enthusiasm of the crypto AI market, attracting a large number of investors to pour into this emerging field full of potential.

Then, the grand convening of the annual AI conference in March once again attracted widespread attention around the world, and pushed the market value of GPU chip-related stocks to soar, triggering a boom in GPU chip speculation. At the meeting, the appearance of a number of leading figures in the crypto industry once again injected new vitality into the field of crypto AI. This series of events has led to the mushrooming of conceptual projects such as decentralized GPUs.

Since then, crypto AI has officially developed into an independent track, with AI infrastructure, decentralized GPUs, decentralized AI data and other projects emerging one after another, bringing more choices and opportunities to the market.

In October, the growth of the crypto AI field was mainly attributed to the explosion of AI Agent-related projects. The emergence of the AI Agent project has triggered a boom in the speculation of related projects, and promoted the batch issuance of nearly 100 AI Agent-related tokens. This trend has led to the rapid rise of AI Agent, which has grown into an independent segment in the crypto AI field, with products covering AI Agent-related tokens, AI Agent issuance platforms, and AI Agent underlying infrastructure. According to the data, as of December 23, the total market value of the AI Agent track token has reached $9.8 billion, accounting for about 20% of the total market value of the entire crypto AI track project ($47 billion), and the hype continues.

If major breakthroughs and industry conferences in the field of AI constitute a strong external driving force for the development of the crypto AI field, then the explosive growth of AI agent-related projects is undoubtedly a fire ignited within the crypto market and accelerated the rise of this field. Under the combined effect of internal and external catalytic effects, the crypto AI track has quickly become a key field in the crypto world that cannot be ignored, and its importance is becoming increasingly significant.

In addition, in 2024, the crypto AI market will usher in an unprecedented investment boom, with major investment institutions competing to enter, and the amount of investment has risen sharply. In this field, a number of top venture capital institutions have actively deployed “Crypto+AI” projects.

Among them, some institutions expressed high optimism about the combination of Crypto and AI at the beginning of the year, and invested in a number of related projects. Some institutions have raised special funds to invest in the AI sector, and have been selected for several crypto AI projects in their startup accelerators. In the second half of the year, more institutions have also announced their entry into the crypto AI field, setting up special funds or increasing investment. According to the report, crypto venture capital firms injected more than $213 million into AI projects in the third quarter of 2024, up 250% quarter-on-quarter and 340% year-over-year.

Crypto AI Product Morphology Analysis

At present, the encrypted AI products on the market can be divided into two main forms: “AI for Crypto” and “Crypto for AI”.

“AI for Crypto” refers to the use of AI to empower Crypto, which mainly focuses on the application of AI technology to crypto products, and improves the user experience or enhances the performance of products by incorporating AI elements. For example, using AI to conduct code optimization and security audits, participating in the formulation of on-chain revenue strategies, integrating AI chatbots to answer user questions, and simplifying on-chain operations with the help of AI agents.

“Crypto for AI” focuses on the use of cryptography to empower the AI industry, and uses the unique advantages of blockchain technology to solve or improve some aspects of the AI industry. For example, blockchain technology is used to solve the privacy and security problems of AI models in data processing, decentralized ownership of AI models is realized through model assetization, and Token technology is used to aggregate computing resources to reduce the cost of AI model training.

Overall, the decentralized nature of Web3 technology and the token economic model provide new ideas for solving problems such as data transparency and business model efficiency in the AI industry. This also makes “Crypto for AI” show a broader prospect and potential in the market application level than “AI for Crypto”.

Crypto AI Ecosystem Building

Based on the three core elements that drive the development of AI large models, “data, computing power, and algorithms”, an ecosystem of encrypted AI products has gradually taken shape.

At the data level, the encrypted AI project covers the collection, storage, and processing of data. Some projects encourage users to share data through a token incentive mechanism, while others launch a dedicated data marketplace. The decentralized data annotation platform provides developers with high-quality training datasets to optimize the learning process of AI models. When it comes to data storage, decentralized storage solutions ensure the security and durability of data.

In terms of computing power, decentralized GPU computing networks have emerged, creating an open marketplace and GPU aggregation platform that allows anyone to contribute idle GPU computing power and earn rewards. Some projects even tokenize physical GPUs and convert them into on-chain financial digital assets, promoting the decentralization and liquidity of computing power.

At the algorithm model level, the decentralized AI algorithm network is essentially a decentralized AI algorithm service marketplace, connecting many AI models with different expertise. Some projects aggregate various AI models in the form of competitions or subnets to provide users with high-quality content output.

2025 Crypto AI Track Outlook

Since the popularity of AI Agent-related projects in October, such products have become the new darling of the crypto AI market. Not only have the construction frameworks and infrastructure projects specifically built for AI Agent received large amounts of financing, but the market focus has gradually shifted from the original infrastructure fields such as decentralized data and GPUs to the enthusiastic pursuit of AI Agent applications.

Many institutions have expressed their optimism about the development of the crypto and AI market in the outlook for crypto industry trends in 2025, and specifically pointed out that AI Agent-related products will usher in explosive growth in 2025.

At the same time, the popularity of external AI continues to rise. The AI company of a well-known entrepreneur has once again completed a large financing round, further boosting the boom in the AI market.

At the narrative level, some large AI companies are undergoing a transition from traditional language models to general artificial intelligence (AI) agents. It is reported that a new AI Agent product will be launched in early 2025, which is expected to detonate the AI market again. In addition, the annual AI Summit is also the focus of attention for the crypto and AI industry.

Every time the model upgrade of a large company in the AI field ignites the hot spot of the AI track, attracting new funds to pour in, and further detonating the encrypted AI track.

At the policy level, there is news that the new US administration will appoint someone with dual investment experience in the crypto and AI industries to lead AI and cryptocurrency affairs, which is believed to be a catalyst for the convergence of crypto and AI.