Grayscale Adds AI Crypto Sector, Places XRP with Bitcoin as Currency Asset

• Grayscale introduces an AI sector with a $21 billion market cap across 20 tokens.
• Bitcoin and XRP are grouped under the Currency Sector for payment utility.
• Grayscale’s framework now includes six sectors reflecting token functions.

Grayscale Investments has launched a new Artificial Intelligence (AI) Crypto Sector while also confirming the classification of XRP and Bitcoin as currency assets. The asset manager introduced the updates through a blog post, citing functional differentiation as the basis for grouping assets within its proprietary Crypto Sectors framework.

The newly created AI Crypto Sector consists of 20 blockchain projects that integrate artificial intelligence into their functionality. According to Grayscale, the total market capitalization of these tokens reached $21 billion as of the time of the announcement, up from $4.5 billion in Q1 2023. This represents a 366.66% increase in valuation, prompting Grayscale to recognize AI as a standalone sector within its classification system.

Among the featured assets are Bittensor (TAO), Render (RENDER), Worldcoin (WLD), Story Protocol (IP), Near (NEAR), and Theta Network (THETA). Other listed projects include AIOZ Network (AIOZ), Virtuals (VIRTUAL), and Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (FET), along with Grass (GRASS), Arkham Intelligence (ARKM), Kaito (KAITO), and Golem (GLM). Also included are Akash (AKT), Livepeer (LPT), Venice.ai (VVV), Aethir (ATH), io.net (IO), ElizaOS (A16Z), and aixbt (AIXBT).

At the time of the announcement, Bittensor (TAO) held the largest market cap in the group at $3.8 billion, with a fully diluted valuation of $9.3 billion. Grayscale stated that grouping these tokens into one sector allows investors to evaluate the performance of AI-related projects collectively and assess their allocation strategies more effectively.

XRP and Bitcoin Positioned in Currency Sector

In a separate classification update, Grayscale placed both Bitcoin and XRP under the Currency Sector. According to the firm’s framework, this category includes digital assets primarily used for decentralized payments and as stores of value.

Bitcoin’s fixed supply and function as a value-preserving asset contributed to its classification. XRP, on the other hand, was included for its use in cross-border payments and its adoption by financial institutions for international settlement processes.

Grayscale’s Crypto Sectors framework sorts tokens into categories just by how they are used. This way, tokens are not sorted by popularity, but to illustrate what they do in the bigger cryptocurrency system. 

With the rise of AI, Grayscale organizes the crypto world into six groups: currencies, financials, smart contract platforms, utilities and services, artificial intelligence, and Consumer and culture.