AI coins surge after Nvidia’s GTC keynote…NEAR, FET post double-digit gains

Suehyeon Lee

Summary

After Nvidia’s keynote, its vision for expanding AI infrastructure came into focus, driving double-digit gains in AI-related crypto assets such as NEAR, FET, WLD, and GRASS.
CEO Huang said cumulative semiconductor demand of about $1 trillion could build through 2027, with about 60% expected to be taken by major cloud companies.
The market is watching the potential for autonomous AI agents to use blockchain-based infrastructure for payments and interactions, alongside a rise in blockchain projects tied to computing power sharing and AI training data networks.

Forecast Trend Report by Period

AI-related crypto assets (cryptocurrencies) extended gains after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang laid out a vision for scaling AI infrastructure.

According to CoinDesk on the 16th (local time), AI-themed blockchain project Near Protocol (NEAR) rose more than 10% over the past 24 hours, marking its highest level since late January. The token of the decentralized AI project Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (FET) also jumped as much as nearly 20% intraday.

Worldcoin (WLD), an identity-based project co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, also gained about 10% and traded around $0.40. Grass (GRASS), a decentralized network that provides unused internet bandwidth for AI training, rose about 13%, setting a new year-to-date high.

The moves came after Huang’s keynote at the GTC developer conference, where he pointed to a looming expansion in demand for AI infrastructure. Huang said cumulative semiconductor demand could reach about $1 trillion by 2027. He added that roughly 60% of that would likely be accounted for by major cloud companies.

He also cited the spread of “agentic AI” systems drawing attention among developers and introduced the “NemoClaw” project, an enterprise-oriented refinement of the concept.

While crypto assets were not mentioned directly in the speech, the market is focusing on the possibility that autonomous AI agents may use blockchain-based infrastructure for payments and interactions. At the same time, more blockchain projects are emerging to build computing power-sharing networks and AI training data networks.

Meanwhile, Nvidia (NVDA) shares—seen as a bellwether for AI investment—rose about 2% during the keynote, but later pared gains to close up about 1.5% on the day.