The amounts invested in artificial intelligence projects since the beginning of 2025 are a multiple of those invested in cryptocurrency projects. Cryptocurrency is a volatile asset that can lead to financial losses.
In 2025, 341 crypto projects around the world have raised $4.85 billion in venture capital investment, according to Cryptorank data as of March 14. However, according to Pitchbook, this volume was negligible compared to the nearly $20 billion invested in artificial intelligence (AI) projects in the U.S. Despite experts’ predictions of synergies between cryptocurrencies and AI, venture capital has so far shown little interest in such a merger.
Data shows that from January through March, investors closed 795 AI deals in the US. If we single out just the U.S. as the largest venture capital funding market in cryptocurrencies, volumes have totaled about $822 million for 167 projects since the start of 2025. And only one of them assumes that the project will develop AI technologies. While the global figure for non-jurisdiction-specific investments in AI crypto projects was 55 projects (16% of the total) receiving $405 million (less than 9%).
In the U.S., startups of infrastructure projects and services that provide user interaction and functionality of blockchain applications received the most investments (88 projects), followed by the decentralized financial applications sector (DeFi, 36 projects). Next are individual blockchain networks (13) and projects from the blockchain gaming sector (GameFi, 11). The remaining projects fall into the categories of centralized financial applications (CeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFT) and memcoins.
And the three largest rounds include a project from the decentralized finance sector Figure ($200 million), cryptocurrency wallet Phantom ($150 million) and payment infrastructure company Mesh ($82 million). And the largest investment in a crypto project was in the largest crypto exchange by trading volume, Binance – $2 billion from the state investment fund MGX from Abu Dhabi, which was the largest transaction in the crypto market by amount.
This is at odds with experts’ predictions of synergies between the cryptocurrency and AI markets. In late 2024, Coinbase Ventures analyst Jonathan King suggested that AI could be built on blockchain technology, where multiple individual AIs would begin to interact in a common space, driving economic activity and growth.
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“The synergy between cryptocurrency and AI could accelerate innovation in both sectors, enabling more transparent, decentralized and autonomous systems,” King said.
But since 2011, venture capital firms have always favored AI more than cryptocurrencies, according to Coindesk data. The only exception was 2021, when the crypto market received $30 billion versus the AI sector’s $23 billion.
Perhaps the low interest of venture capital firms in AI synergy projects with cryptocurrencies is due to the limited application of these technologies. As Bybit Exchange’s research division reported in late 2024, most of the use of AI in cryptocurrencies refers to the development of the field of AI agents acting as influencers. In the cryptocurrency community, these market participants are called KOLs (key opinion leaders), meaning they are experts, celebrities or other members of the crypto community who have gained an audience of followers on social media.
AI agents in cryptocurrencies are computer programs that can perform actions without human intervention to achieve any goals. For example, it is sending messages via blockchain or exchanging tokens on a decentralized exchange.
The AI crypto projects sector has suffered the biggest losses since the beginning of the year. At its peaks in December, its capitalization reached nearly $70 billion, according to Coinmarketcap, and as of March 14, it was less than $27 billion (minus 60%). By comparison, the crypto market as a whole has lost about 25% from its peaks in January. And about 90% of the largest cryptocurrencies from this sector have lost as much as 83% in value since the beginning of the year.
Nevertheless, experts note the prospects of this direction.
