Are AI Coins Entering a Bull Market in May or Bears Still Hold Control?

AI coins are starting to attract renewed interest, but the broader sector remains far from its earlier highs. While recent rallies have pushed names like VIRTUAL and TURBO up over 280% in the last 30 days, most top AI tokens are still deep in the red year-to-date.

Smart money activity highlights this divide—VIRTUAL and FARTCOIN stand out with strong on-chain metrics, while others lag behind. Overall, despite signs of a recovery, many investors appear to be waiting for clearer signals before re-entering the AI crypto space.

AI Coins Rebound Strong in 30 Days—but Still Far from Highs

This year has been rough for artificial intelligence coins, with 9 of the top 10 trading in the red year-to-date. Many have dropped over 40%, and some have been hit even harder.

The biggest loser is AI16Z, down more than 80% since January. VIRTUAL has also struggled overall—despite being up nearly 288% in the last 30 days, it’s still down almost 58% since January 1.

Over the past month, however, momentum has shifted. Eight of the top 10 artificial intelligence coins have surged at least 60%, with TURBO and VIRTUAL leading the charge.

TURBO has gained 303% in the last 30 days, while VIRTUAL has added 288%. These rallies have revived short-term interest in the AI sector.

Top 10 Biggest AI Coins YTD Performance. Source: Messari.

Weekly performance has been mixed. TURBO gained another 20% over the past seven days, but most other AI coins remained relatively flat. In the last 24 hours, though, the group is showing renewed strength.

All top 10 AI coins are up, with VIRTUAL jumping 31%, leading the rebound.

Despite this recent surge, AI tokens remain far below their earlier peaks. Interest is clearly returning, but these rallies haven’t erased the steep losses from earlier this year.

VIRTUAL, for example, is still down 65.89% from its all-time high, despite the strong monthly recovery. This suggests that while AI coins are gaining momentum again, they have a long road ahead to revisit the hype levels seen between December 2024 and January 2025.

Smart Money Focuses on VIRTUAL and FARTCOIN as AI Sector Lags

Smart money activity around the top 10 AI coins has been mixed over the past seven days. VIRTUAL on Base stood out with $155,000 in net DEX buys from smart wallets, suggesting growing confidence in its recent momentum.

FARTCOIN followed with $52,370 in net buys and continues to be a unique case—it’s up 23.5% year-to-date, the only AI coin in the top 10 with a positive return for 2025 so far.

VIRTUAL on Base also leads in trader participation, with 47 smart money wallets active last week. This puts it far ahead of any other AI coin, with FARTCOIN in second place at just 8.

Top 10 Biggest AI Coins Data In The Last 7 Days. Source: Nansen.

Other coins in the sector are seeing less consistent engagement. ALCH, for example, attracted $22,500 in smart money net buys but only two smart wallets were involved—highlighting limited conviction despite inflows.

This kind of disparity is common across most of the AI tokens outside the top performers.

While VIRTUAL and FARTCOIN are emerging as outliers, the broader AI coin space hasn’t yet captured significant smart money attention.

Many investors may still be watching from the sidelines, watching macro trends and the performance of larger assets like Bitcoin, which just surpassed $100,000 again, Ethereum, and Solana unfold before fully committing to this niche.