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It’s rare a news bulletin goes by without mention of artificial intelligence and its impact on modern life. AI has joined cryptocurrency as a topic of huge interest across society, with the potential to revolutionise the way we live our lives.
Perhaps it’s not surprising that these two cutting-edge technologies have become bedfellows, with AI cryptocurrencies garnering increasing amounts of attention from investors. But what exactly is an AI cryptocurrency? And which ones, as measured by market capitalisation, are the largest as of September 2025?
The cryptocurrency market is still largely unregulated in Australia, so you will have no protection if something goes wrong. Buying cryptocurrency is speculative and your capital is at risk, meaning you may lose some or all of your money.
The term AI cryptocurrency is a bit misleading. AI cryptocurrencies are just tokens users spend to consume services on AI-focused blockchain platforms. For example, you might spend a certain number of tokens to use a crypto project’s pooled resource of computing power.
The following are the top 10 AI crypto projects based on their market capitalisation (according to CoinMarketCap on September 23, 2025), and what each of them does.
1. Story (IP)
Market cap: $US4.4 billion
Story is a blockchain project concerned with tokenising creative works such as art and music so that they can be licensed and monetised. As of September 23, 2025, IP trades at $US14.10, up sharply from $US3.00 in June.
2. NEAR Protocol (NEAR)
Market cap: $US3.6 billion
NEAR Protocol claims it is creating a user-owned internet that guarantees privacy and ownership of data for its users. NEAR’s transaction fees are paid in NEAR tokens. As of September 23, 2025, NEAR trades at $US2.88, down from $2.14 in June.
3.Bittensor (TAO)
Market cap: $US3.1 billion
Bittensor is a peer-to-peer marketplace for machine intelligence, enabling AI models to pool their intelligence to create a “digital hive mind.” Users spend TAO to consume Bittensor services. As of September 23, 2025, TAO trades at $314.48, down from $US335.65 in June.
4. Internet Computer (ICP)
Market cap: $US2.3 billion
Internet Computer’s big idea is a decentralised internet. Instead of websites and apps being hosted on servers owned by giants like Google and Amazon, websites built on ICP would have no fixed home, and would move between independently owned servers. Users spend ICP tokens to keep their sites online. As of September 23, 2025, ICP trades at $US4.29, down from $US4.89 in June.
5. Render (RNDR)
Market cap: $US1.9 billion
Render Network provides artists with computer rendering resources for creating 3D graphics and animations. Users spend RNDR tokens to consume services on Render. As of September 23, 2025, RNDR trades at $US3.64, up from $US3.21 in June.
6. Filecoin (FIL)
Market cap: $US1.5 billion
Filecoin is a peer-to-peer, decentralised file storage system. Users spend FIL tokens to store, retrieve and host digital information on the network. As of September 23, 2025, FIL trades at $US2.23, a shade down on $US2.27 in June.
7. Artificial Intelligence Alliance (FET)
Market cap: $US1.4 billion
Artificial Intelligence Alliance is a cooperative project between Fetch.ai, SingularityNET and Ocean Protocol. The project aims to create a decentralised AI ecosystem and a universal AI token (ASI). As of September 23, 2025, FET trades at $US0.58, down from $US0.66 in June.
8. Injective (INJ)
Market cap: $US1.2 billion
Injective is a blockchain project focused on decentralised apps (dApps) in the decentralised finance (DeFi) space. INJ is its native token, and users spend it to consume Injective services and vote on its governance (more tokens means more votes). As of September 23, 2025, INJ trades at $US12.20, up from $US11.39 in June.
9. DeXe (DEXE)
Market cap: $US894 million
The DeXe Protocol provides the infrastructure whereby participants can create and control decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOs), with social trading to the fore. As of September 23, 2025, DEXE was valued at $US10.80, up from $US8.87 in June.
10. The Graph (GRT)
Market cap: $US881 million
The Graph is a protocol for indexing and querying data from blockchains in a similar way that Google indexes and queries data from websites. As of September 23, 2025, The Graph’s native, Ethereum-based token GRT trades at $US0.08, which is largely unchanged on the figure from June.
AI is a field of computer science that’s been in development since the middle of the 20th century. It has become much more consumer-facing and received a lot of media attention in recent years with the development of so-called large language models (LLMs) and generative AI.
AI attempts to mimic human intelligence, allowing users to “speak” to a computer in a natural way that the machine will understand, interpret and react accordingly.
High-profile AI models such as ChatGPT and Gemini can, for example, write an essay or computer code for you, create a fabricated but sometimes convincing image, or even generate a video of an event that has never happened.
This Pandora’s box of technology has raised concerns about misinformation, plagiarism, ethics, displacement of human workers, model bias, corporate power, political instability and more.
Advocates for the technology claim it will free up users’ time, advance science and save businesses money.
Cryptocurrency enables a monetary system in which third parties are unnecessary. You don’t need to keep your crypto in a bank, you don’t need a payment gateway to make a purchase and you don’t need a payments processor to make transfers. Cryptocurrency can facilitate truly peer-to-peer transactions without the need for a bank or bank storage.
Cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and Ethereum can be traded and spent (though not nearly as widely as physical fiat currencies). Mostly, they’re held by speculators hoping they’ll increase in price and be sold for a profit.
While traditional money is centralised, with banks keeping records of customer deposits in ledgers they hold and maintain, crypto transactions are recorded on decentralised ledgers maintained by regular people on their computers.
Those who participate have the opportunity to earn new cryptocurrency for their record-keeping efforts. This is known as crypto mining.
Cryptocurrencies are not stored anywhere because they exist only as records in a digital ledger.
What you actually need to store and access your cryptocurrency is your public and private keys, which you use to cryptographically authorise transactions from your holdings. Whoever has your keys can do as they please with your crypto, so you must keep them secure.
Keys are stored in crypto wallets. There’s a choice of custodial wallets, where someone else holds your keys for you, and non-custodial wallets, where you’re responsible for their storage.
Then there are hot and cold wallets. Hot wallets are hosted online. They are convenient but a magnet for hackers. Cold wallets are disconnected from the internet. They’re less convenient but arguably more secure.
Yes, in the sense that using them won’t do any harm. However, crypto assets are both volatile and lucrative to criminals, which means there’s always going to be a risk that your crypto assets end up being worth less than you paid for them, or that you’ll be targeted by scammers.
AI cryptocurrencies appear particularly vulnerable to price volatility as a result of the hype surrounding AI technology, which may or may not be warranted. Some of the coins in our list have lost more than $US1 billion in market cap since last year, for example.
This article is not an endorsement of any particular cryptocurrency, broker or exchange nor does it constitute a recommendation of cryptocurrency or CFDs as an investment class. Cryptocurrency is unregulated in Australia and your capital is at risk. Trading in contracts for difference (CFDs) is riskier than conventional share trading, not suitable for the majority of investors, and includes the potential for partial or total loss of capital. You should always consider whether you can afford to lose your money before deciding to trade in CFDs or cryptocurrency, and seek advice from an authorised financial advisor.
It is not possible for anyone to accurately predict the prospects of an AI cryptocurrency. Story (IP) is the AI crypto with the largest market capitalisation as of September 2025, but that could easily change.
If you’re only interested in speculation, there’s no way to know which AI cryptocurrency might be the best. If you’re interested in cryptocurrencies for their utility, then it depends what you need them for. Render, for example, might be the best AI crypto for 3D animators. Internet Computer (ICP), on the other hand, might be the best for building decentralised websites.
As it stands, major AI models are owned and operated by huge companies like OpenAI, Google, Microsoft and so on. Decentralised AI, built on blockchain, would democratise AI development, distribution and deployment.
Centralised AI refers to proprietary AI models and technology that is owned by companies and corporations. It is the opposite of decentralised AI.
Investing in AI crypto follows the same process as investing in any other cryptocurrency, such as bitcoin. The only difference is that some AI cryptocurrencies aren’t as widely traded, so you might need to use a specific exchange to trade in the AI crypto you’re interested in. Generally speaking, investing in AI crypto looks like this:
All of the cryptocurrencies in our list are based on artificial intelligence in one way or another.
AI-powered tools such as Messari, Nansen and Kaito.ai can help you to trade in crypto with market intelligence, real-time data analytics and sentiment analysis.
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Staff writer Mark Hooson has been a journalist within the personal finance, consumer affairs and fraud sectors for more than 10 years. He is also Forbes Advisor UK’s resident tech expert. Mark says he thrives on making ‘complicated and dry topics easier to digest’.
Johanna Leggatt is the Lead Editor for Forbes Advisor, Australia. She has more than 20 years' experience as a print and digital journalist, including with Australian Associated Press (AAP) and The Sun-Herald in Sydney. She is a former digital sub-editor on The Guardian and The Telegraph in the UK, and lives in Melbourne.