Artificial intelligence-linked cryptocurrencies extended their rally on Monday after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang laid out the company’s vision for the next phase of AI infrastructure during his keynote at Nvidia’s GTC developer conference.
Among the big movers was AI-focused blockchain which has risen more than 10% over the past 24 hours, reaching its strongest level since late January. Decentralized AI project Artificial Superintelligence Alliance’s FET token rose as much as 20% intraday before trimming gains later in the session.
Meanwhile — the identity-focused crypto project co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman — rose about 10% to trade near $0.40, its strongest level since early March. Grass (GRASS), a decentralized network that lets users monetize unused internet bandwidth to train AI models, rose 13% to new highs in 2026.
The moves came as Huang reinforced Nvidia’s central role in the global AI boom in his speech. During the keynote, he said the company expects a backlog of about $1 trillion in chip demand through 2027, with hyperscale cloud providers accounting for about 60% of its business.
Huang also highlighted the rapid rise of agentic AI systems, praising the viral OpenClaw project that has gained traction among developers in recent weeks. He said Nvidia was working to adapt the system into an enterprise-ready version called NemoClaw, designed to make autonomous AI agents safer for enterprise use without exposing sensitive data.
While Huang did not refer to crypto during the speech, a growing number of blockchain projects are betting that the next wave of AI agents will rely on crypto rails to act and coordinate autonomously. Other projects are racing to build decentralized networks for computing power, AI training and agent infrastructure, and pitching blockchain as an alternative to centralized AI platforms.
Shares of Nvidia (NVDA), widely seen as the bellwether for the AI trade, initially rose about 2% during the keynote before retreating. The stock ultimately closed roughly 1.5% higher on the day.
