When Nvidia's market value surpasses the entire cryptocurrency market, and the narrative strength of AI is sufficient to independently support a technological revolution, the "AI + Crypto" frenzy that has persisted for half a year in the Web3 world seems to be entering a period of calm reflection. The market's pendulum swings from the fervent FOMO (fear of missing out) to the reality of value discovery. As the tide recedes, we can finally discern clearly who is building solid fortresses and who is merely "naked swimming" on the beach.

This narrative ignited by AI has caused countless token prices to soar, but as the dopamine fades, a core question emerges: does the combination of AI and Crypto create a new value paradigm, or is it merely a collusion of capital and attention?

![【Track Scan】As the AI + Crypto craze recedes, who is "naked swimming"?aicoinfigure1](https://static.aicoinstorge.com/article/20250620/175040323464519.png "【Track Scan】As the AI + Crypto craze recedes, who is "naked swimming"?aicoinfigure1")

Current Situation Overview: A Multidimensional Battlefield of Differentiation Between Value and Speculation

In the first half of 2025, the AI + Crypto track is undoubtedly the brightest star in the cryptocurrency market. However, entering June, the market performance has shown significant differentiation, presenting a dual-track pattern of "value-driven" and "speculation-driven." Value-driven projects are no longer competing on a single dimension but are deeply laying out strategies across multiple levels, including infrastructure, platform ecosystems, and vertical applications.

1. Infrastructure Layer: The Arms Race of Decentralized Computing Power and Data

This is the most solid and easily understood layer of value capture in the AI + Crypto field.

Decentralized computing networks: The explosion of AI has made GPU computing power the "new oil" of the digital world.

Projects led by Render Network (RNDR) coordinate global idle GPU resources through blockchain, providing a cost-effective alternative for AI model training and rendering. The continuous growth in network usage proves the real business demand.

![【Track Scan】As the AI + Crypto craze recedes, who is "naked swimming"?aicoinfigure2](https://static.aicoinstorge.com/article/20250620/175040330559948.png "【Track Scan】As the AI + Crypto craze recedes, who is "naked swimming"?aicoinfigure2")

Competitors in the track also include HyperCycle, which is dedicated to building a Layer-0 AI computing network that supports complex AI tasks across nodes and has launched hardware node devices like HyperAiBox; and NodeGoAI (GO), which has also created a decentralized computing resource market allowing users to rent out idle CPU/GPU resources for AI and scientific computing. These projects together form the core applications of the decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) in the AI era.

Decentralized data and model platforms: Data is the fuel for AI.

Ocean Protocol (OCEAN) has been deeply engaged in this field for many years, building a decentralized data marketplace that allows data to be shared, traded, and used for AI training while protecting privacy.

![【Track Scan】As the AI + Crypto craze recedes, who is "naked swimming"?aicoinfigure3](https://static.aicoinstorge.com/article/20250620/175040334853639.png "【Track Scan】As the AI + Crypto craze recedes, who is "naked swimming"?aicoinfigure3")

Cortex (CTXC), on the other hand, has taken a more aggressive approach, aiming to allow AI models to run directly on the blockchain, thus endowing smart contracts with true "intelligence." Although the widespread adoption of on-chain AI still faces challenges, this exploration provides imaginative space for the future forms of DApps.

![【Track Scan】As the AI + Crypto craze recedes, who is "naked swimming"?aicoinfigure4](https://static.aicoinstorge.com/article/20250620/175040344638866.png "【Track Scan】As the AI + Crypto craze recedes, who is "naked swimming"?aicoinfigure4")

2. Platform and Ecosystem Layer: From Solo Efforts to Alliance Games

As the track matures, projects are beginning to shift from independent development to ecosystem integration in pursuit of greater network effects.

Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (ASI Alliance): This is one of the most significant events in the field in 2025. Fetch.ai (FET), SingularityNET (AGIX), and Ocean Protocol (OCEAN) announced the merger of their tokens to jointly build a powerful decentralized AI ecosystem.

![【Track Scan】As the AI + Crypto craze recedes, who is "naked swimming"?aicoinfigure5](https://static.aicoinstorge.com/article/20250620/175040444138929.png "【Track Scan】As the AI + Crypto craze recedes, who is "naked swimming"?aicoinfigure5")

The goal of this alliance is to integrate the strengths of the three parties: Fetch.ai's Autonomous Economic Agents (AEAs) framework for building AI agents that can autonomously execute tasks; SingularityNET's AI service marketplace; and Ocean Protocol's leading data-sharing infrastructure. This merger aims to accelerate the development of decentralized Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), directly challenging the closed AI ecosystems dominated by tech giants.

Proof of Personhood and Identity Networks: In a future where AI becomes increasingly powerful, distinguishing between humans and machines becomes a fundamental issue.

Worldcoin (WLD) enters the scene with its controversial yet visionary approach, attempting to build a global proof of personhood network through the iris scanning device Orb. Despite facing ongoing scrutiny regarding privacy and regulation, its global user base and ecological applications continue to expand, aiming to provide the underlying identity and financial infrastructure for a future world of human-machine coexistence.

![【Track Scan】As the AI + Crypto craze recedes, who is "naked swimming"?aicoinfigure6](https://static.aicoinstorge.com/article/20250620/175040358249860.png "【Track Scan】As the AI + Crypto craze recedes, who is "naked swimming"?aicoinfigure6")

3. Application Layer: Seeking the Holy Grail in Vertical Fields

The ultimate value of AI + Crypto needs to be reflected through specific applications.

AI Empowering Finance: The decentralized AI hedge fund Numerai (NMR) is a pioneer in this field. It incentivizes global data scientists to anonymously submit predictive models for financial markets through cryptoeconomics, integrating them into a "meta-model" for investment. This model explores the innovative combination of AI and collective intelligence in quantitative investment.

![【Track Scan】As the AI + Crypto craze recedes, who is "naked swimming"?aicoinfigure7](https://static.aicoinstorge.com/article/20250620/175040362377381.png "【Track Scan】As the AI + Crypto craze recedes, who is "naked swimming"?aicoinfigure7")

AI Empowering Vertical Industries: Innovation is happening in every corner.

Quantum Blockchain (QBT) claims to use AI to optimize the algorithms of Bitcoin mining equipment to improve energy efficiency. Startup Rumi Labs targets the media sector, developing on-chain interactive technology that uses AI to analyze streaming content, attempting to transform users' passive viewing behavior into an interactive, rewardable "Watch-to-Earn" new model.

![【Track Scan】As the AI + Crypto craze recedes, who is "naked swimming"?aicoinfigure8](https://static.aicoinstorge.com/article/20250620/175040371260150.png "【Track Scan】As the AI + Crypto craze recedes, who is "naked swimming"?aicoinfigure8")

Questions and Challenges: The Three Mountains That Cannot Be Avoided

Beneath the dazzling narrative of AI + Crypto lie three unavoidable real challenges that together constitute the bottleneck for the development of this track.

The "pseudo-proposition" dilemma of technological integration: Many projects merely perform a clumsy "stitching" of AI and blockchain. The real technical challenge lies in how to run complex AI models on a decentralized, transparent, and immutable blockchain. Currently, both the performance bottlenecks of on-chain computing and the delays and costs of oracle transmission of AI results remain unresolved.

The "death spiral" of economic models (Tokenomics): The vast majority of AI projects attempt to construct an economic closed loop of "contributing resources - obtaining tokens - staking dividends." However, the vulnerability of this model lies in the fact that once token prices fall, the returns from contributing resources lose their attractiveness, leading to a decrease in supply, which in turn weakens the project's fundamentals, exacerbating selling pressure and forming a "death spiral."

The "sword of Damocles" of data privacy and ownership: The lifeblood of AI is data, while one of the core spirits of Web3 is user data ownership. How to protect user privacy and provide fair returns while utilizing user data to train models? The global regulatory scrutiny triggered by Worldcoin's iris data collection serves as the most direct warning.

Looking for the Future: When the AI Narrative Cools, Where Will Capital Turn?

As the market grows weary of the pure AI + Crypto story, capital and savvy developers have begun to shift their focus to areas with more practical potential. Among them, DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network) and RWA (Real World Asset Tokenization) are becoming the most notable "next value narratives."

DePIN: Moving from the Digital World to the Physical World

The logic of DePIN is consistent with projects like Render and HyperCycle, but its vision is broader. It aims to use token incentives to enable global users to collaboratively build and maintain the infrastructure network of the physical world, with its value rooted in the real demands of the physical world rather than pure digital world speculation.

![【Track Scan】As the AI + Crypto craze recedes, who is "naked swimming"?aicoinfigure9](https://static.aicoinstorge.com/article/20250620/175040379426388.png "【Track Scan】As the AI + Crypto craze recedes, who is "naked swimming"?aicoinfigure9")

RWA: A Bridge Connecting Traditional Finance and the Crypto World

If DePIN is the "transformation" of the physical world by Web3, then RWA is the "integration" into the traditional financial world. By tokenizing real-world assets such as real estate and bonds, RWA introduces a continuous stream of high-quality assets with stable income support into the crypto world, which may become the core channel for guiding massive traditional funds into Web3.

![【Track Scan】As the AI + Crypto craze recedes, who is "naked swimming"?aicoinfigure10](https://static.aicoinstorge.com/article/20250620/175040399352399.png "【Track Scan】As the AI + Crypto craze recedes, who is "naked swimming"?aicoinfigure10")

In Conclusion

The story of AI + Crypto is far from over, but it is transitioning from a fervent phase of "everything can be AI" into a deep water zone of authenticity and value accumulation. True innovators are overcoming technical challenges, while speculators are searching for the next opportunity.

This article only represents the author's personal views and does not reflect the position or views of this platform. This article is for informational sharing only and does not constitute any investment advice to anyone.

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