Grayscale’s AI crypto sector gains 54% in September, lapping the broader market

While most of crypto had a perfectly decent September, one corner of the market was busy making everyone else look slow. Grayscale’s Artificial Intelligence crypto sector returned 54% for the month, more than doubling the 24% gain posted by the broader crypto market under Grayscale’s own six-sector framework. The numbers come from a Grayscale research note published October 2, authored by head of research Zach Pandl. The firm tracks crypto through a proprietary taxonomy that segments the market into six distinct categories, and the AI sector sat at the top of the leaderboard for September by a considerable margin. What drove the rally Pandl attributed the sector’s momentum to early investor recognition of blockchains as foundational infrastructure for the emerging agent economy. The use cases he pointed to: payments, identity, private computation, and verifiable records. The tokens that delivered that 54% aggregate return were not all pulling equal weight. NEAR topped the leaderboard with a 183% gain for the month. VVV climbed 70%, and WLD added 47%. TAO, another token in Grayscale’s Decentralized AI Fund alongside NEAR, RENDER, and FIL, rounded out the notable performers at 37%. A...