Decentralized AI project Bittensor skyrocketed to the top of the weekly gainers’ list, riding the wave of Nvidia’s stock surge.

Bittensor (TAO) topped the charts this week as the biggest gainer among the top 100 cryptocurrencies with a solid 31% price jump. At the time of writing, TAO ranked 41st by market cap which stood at over $2.51 billion, with its price up 8.87% in the last 24 hours, trading at $313.59.

TAO’s recent climb can be credited to Nvidia Corp’s stock rallying 13.5%, closing at $119.08 on Sept. 13. This surge pushed Nvidia’s market cap to a whopping $2.92 trillion, according to MarketWatch.

With Nvidia stocks up 140.5% so far this year, the momentum has lifted TAO and other AI-focused cryptocurrencies along with it, pushing the AI-crypto market cap up by 0.8% in the last 24 hours. According to CoinGecko, the total market cap for AI tokens now stands at $23.9 billion.

AI tokens typically move in tandem with Nvidia’s stock. On Sept. 4, tokens like Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (FET) and Render (RNDR) fronted double-digit losses after a 9.5% dip in Nvidia’s stock. Back in February, these tokens rallied after Nvidia’s strong Q4 2023 earnings, and a similar buzz also built up ahead of its Q2 2024 report.

TAO primed for liftoff

The 1D TAO/USD price chart from Sep. 14, signals a strong bullish trend, suggesting a potential for upward movement. 

The Moving Average Convergence Divergence has crossed above its signal line, and displaying longer green bars on the histogram, both positive signs for upward momentum.

Moreover, the Relative Strength Index currently stands at 59, indicating the asset is in a healthy trading zone, still far away from overbought levels. 

This provides room for potential growth without immediate concerns of a pullback due to overvaluation, painting a bullish outlook for the token’s short-term price trajectory, with further gains expected in the short term.

Market observers on X are echoing a similar bullish sentiment. According to analyst Marco Polo, TAO is currently ranging between $268 and $357. He expects a powerful upward move once TAO breaks above the $357 mark.

At least 19 startups raised venture capital funds over the past seven days, with the largest round going to Huma Finance, a tokenized real-world assets platform.

Huma announced on Sept. 11 that it received $38 million in a fund-raising effort led by Distributed Global. Hashkey Capital, the Stellar Foundation, Folius Ventures, and Turkish private bank İşbank also participated.

The company plans to use the $10 million in equity financing and $28 million via yield-bearing RWAs to expand its PayFi network globally. It also plans to go live on Solana (SOL) and Stellar (XLM)’s smart contracts network in coming months.

This week’s crypto VC funding column pulls the latest announcements from X.com and the investment tracker, Crypto Fundraising. Here’s what was announced between Sept. 8 and Sept. 14:

Fuse (Project Zero), $12 million

Fuse, a London-based decentralized renewable energy developer, secured $12 million in a funding round led by Multicoin Capital.

PIN AI, $10 million

PIN AI, an AI infrastructure company, confirmed $10 million in pre-seed funding. The startup aims to develop the world’s first open-source Personal Intelligence Network (PIN).

The list of backers includes: A16z CSX, Hack VC, Blockchain Builders Fund (Stanford Blockchain Accelerator), NEAR Protocol founder Illia Polosukhin, SOL Foundation president Lily Liu, Symbolic Capital, Mysten CEO Evan Cheng, dcbuilder (Worldcoin Foundation), Foresight Ventures, Nomad Capital, Cresta co-founder Tim Shi, Espresso CEO Ben Fisch, Gitcoin co-founder Scott Moore, Alumni Ventures, and Dispersion Capital.

DRiP, $8 million

Drip Labs, the startup behind Solana-based creator platform DRiP, collected $8 million in seed funding on Sept. 9. NFX led the effort. Coinbase Ventures and Progression also drew participated.

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has recently voiced support for a California AI Safety Bill, garnering attention across the wider industry. The Bill, SB 1047, comes as a one-of-a-kind mover scoping in on artificial intelligence development. Meanwhile, other industries’ prominence continues to tear into this AI bill, with OpenAI, a vital industry player, even eyeing support for another bill.

Elon Musk Supports SB 1047 California AI Bill

In a post shared on X on August 27, the American entrepreneur stated, “This is a tough call and will make some people upset, but, all things considered, I think California should probably pass the SB 1047 AI safety bill.” This statement by Elon Musk, as AI giants continue to rip apart the mentioned bill, has gained significant traction across the industry.

The SB 1037 Bill mandates AI devs spending more than $100 million in curating a model to conduct ‘safety testing.’ Should the firms violate the Bill and cause damages exceeding $500 million, the attorney general remains liable to take action against the developer.

However, the Bill garnered severe criticism from industry giants such as OpenAI and Google. Recently, OpenAI Chief Strategy Officer Jason Kwon hinted that the California AI bill could hinder the growth and progress of key industries. Simultaneously, Sam Altman’s OpenAI appears to be pushing for another AI bill, contrary to Elon Musk’s support of SB 1047.

OpenAI Supports AB 3211 AI Bill

Conversely, the ChatGPT maker appears to be supporting the AB 3211 AI Bill that requires the ‘watermarking’ of AI, aka synthetic content. This new Bill mandates tech companies to label AI-generated content, spanning from harmless memes to deepfakes aimed at spreading misinformation about political candidates.

Nevertheless, the AB 3211 currently remains dwarfed due to the SB 1047. Meanwhile, industry-wide speculation remains whether the California AI ‘Safety Bill’ will be used to crack down on open-weights, i.e., firms offering public access to their trained models.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin further replied to Elon Musk’s post on X today, revealing that recent Bill-wise developments illustrate efforts to engulf open-weights under its umbrella. However, he also added that the “charitable read of the bill is that the (medium-term) goal is to mandate safety testing.”

Meanwhile, in another riveting turn of events, the Tesla & SpaceX CEO’s social media platform X has garnered global attention. Following Telegram founder Pavel Durov’s arrest, Elon Musk agreed that X might be next to censorship scrutiny.

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Coingape Staff

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