These 3 AI Crypto Tokens Surged More Than 20% Last Week

It’s been a rather remarkable week in the stock market, and certain cryptocurrencies have certainly joined in on the excitement. As of 1:30 pm ET Friday, Internet Computer (ICP -5.25%), NEAR Protocol (NEAR -5.68%), and Chainlink (LINK -5.33%) surged 21.1%, 20.5%, and 20%, respectively from the previous Friday’s close.

This sort of week-over-week move is notable, even in the more volatile crypto sector. Let’s dive into what factors may be at play with respect to these three AI-adjacent crypto projects, and whether this move has the legs to continue from here.

AI catalysts abound in the crypto sector

It’s worth noting that each of these three projects carries various AI catalysts that are worth exploring, particularly in light of the various moves we’ve seen in the stock market this past week. Outperformance from a number of AI-related chip names has driven outsized excitement in other companies and projects with AI exposure, with Nvidia‘s rather impressive move higher over the past week (up more than 15%), paving the way for similar moves in assets that may even be more highly leveraged to these secular trends.

Internet Computer has been one of the best-performing crypto assets this past week, as investors increasingly price in the possibility this project will become an AI blockchain as its primary goal.

The network’s DecideAI demand has remained strong, and there is no shortage of investors who think the long-term opportunity for Internet Computer as a potential fundamental technology underpinning the AI revolution will continue to provide outsized swings to the upside (and downside, for that matter) in times of higher volatility, such as what we’re seeing play out now.

NEAR Protocol has also garnered interest from AI investors with respect to the platform’s focus on building some of the most solid infrastructure to support decentralized applications in the AI space over time.

Performance is everything, for investors who are looking at which layer 1 networks may provide the bedrock for future AI applications to be built on. With strong ecosystem growth and a focus on creating a truly high-performance DeFi network, I think NEAR will remain on many investors’ watch lists.

Finally, Chainlink’s incredible weekly move appears to be tied to strong social media activity and discussion around the oracle network. Chainlink essentially allows for data feeds (off-chain) to be ported into various blockchain-based applications.

Many investors increasingly view Chainlink as a key component to decentralized application development, and most AI apps will likely require plenty of off-chain data to operate. Thus, this could be a pick-and-shovel play worth watching — at least, social media data suggests many others in the market think so.

Can this rally continue?

This week’s impressive move in these three AI-related projects has really underscored the kind of volatility crypto tokens have, but it also highlights the boost megatrends such as artificial intelligence can give to markets. At the intersection of these two powerfully volatile trends sit these three projects, which I expect will continue to have plenty of volatility for traders and investors to digest in the coming weeks.

Right now, the trend appears to be solidly bullish for these three projects. I’m certainly not going to suggest going against the trend with these projects is the right move in the short to medium term, as this momentum looks real.

But investors will certainly want to hand-pick their winners in this space, so I think identifying one or two projects that may be leaders in their respective niches may be a better strategy than the bucket-like trading activity we’re seeing across cryptos exposed to AI this week.

Chris MacDonald has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Chainlink, Near Protocol, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends Internet Computer. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.