Grayscale Identifies $15B AI Crypto Segment as Potential Growth Driver

Investors are showing growing interest in blockchain services supporting artificial intelligence, according to Grayscale's October 2 analysis by Zach Pandl, head of research. The firm's thesis centers on public blockchains complementing AI development within a segment worth roughly $15 billion. This segment outperformed the broader market in September, with AI tokens gaining 54% compared to 24% for the broader market. NEAR led the highlighted projects with a 183% monthly increase.

Grayscale sees potential major AI crypto winners within five years. The argument centers on public blockchains complementing AI development that remains concentrated among a handful of companies. Potential applications include agent payments, identity, verifiable records, and private computing, which protects sensitive information during processing.

The analysis interprets the rally as growing recognition of those uses. Alongside NEAR's September gain, Venice's VVV rose 70%, World's WLD advanced 47%, and Bittensor's TAO increased 37%, according to the analysis. These projects span several functions, from paying automated workers to distinguishing people from AI-generated activity.

Grayscale describes Venice's chatbot application as providing private access to models without storing users' prompts or responses. Investment exposure to these services also appears in Grayscale's Decentralized AI Fund allocations. Its August rebalance retained NEAR and Bittensor alongside Render, a distributed graphics processing network, and Filecoin, a decentralized storage network.

Automated commerce brings verification and security challenges, making traceable activity relevant to coordination. Rodrigo Coelho, CEO of blockchain development company Edge and Node, argued in an October 2025 interview that blockchain infrastructure for autonomous agents could make actions auditable.