AI and Big Data tokens have joined metaverse tokens and industry-related cryptocurrencies to spike substantially in price. Among the hundreds of AI and Big Data tokens in the market, Fetch.ai (FET), Ocean Protocol (OCEAN), and The Graph (GRT) have brought awesome gains to their holders in the first three weeks of January. 

Fetch.ai (FET) has soared more than 200% 

Fetch.ai was created in 2017 as an AI laboratory that builds open, decentralized, and permissionless machine learning networks within the crypto economy. 

After shedding more than 80% of its value in 2022 due to an industry-wide bloodbath that wiped off more than $2 trillion from the crypto market, FET rebounded strongly in 2023. 

After opening the year on Jan. 1 with a trading price of $0.09166, the coin reached a monthly low of $0.09041 on Jan. 2. On Jan. 13, Binance announced the launch of FET/USDT Perpetual Contracts across multiple margin assets. The largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume followed this up by opening trading for FET/TRY (Turkish Lira) on Jan. 26. On Jan. 17, another exchange Bitrue also listed FET/USDT on its futures platform. In the crypto space, staking, the adoption of a crypto asset by a mainstream institution as well as token listing by reputable exchanges (in this case Binance and Bitrue) are major drivers of price. 

The listing of the coin led to it reaching a monthly and yearly high of $0.3045 on Jan. 23. After seeing a low daily volume of $5.5 million, increased demand for the coin on the more than 30 exchanges that supports it led to the new high daily volume of $170 million. 

In the process, FETs market capitalization has risen by 232% from $75 million on its opening day to over $230 million. 

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Ocean Protocol (OCEAN) spiked over 130% due to the Hackathon progress

As a blockchain-based ecosystem that allows individuals and businesses to unlock the value of their data and monetize it via the use of Ethereum-based tokens, OCEAN has benefitted immensely from the cryptocurrency market rebound of 2023. 

Ocean has built on top of several mainstream blockchains in the industry and the highlight was when it partnered with Moonbeam Network on Polkadot to allow stakeholders of the Polkadot ecosystem to buy, stake, and publish data. 

OCEAN, like more than 90% of cryptocurrencies shed around 80% of its value in 2022 after opening and closing the year at $0.8586 and $0.1633 respectively. OCEAN opened 2023 with a price of $0.1633, reached a monthly low of $0.1592 on Jan. 2, and since that day, the token has benefitted from the Data Builders Hackathon the Ocean Foundation launched with Gitcoin which launched on Jan. 5 and it’s slated to end by the end of the month. Through this Hackathon, $40,000 in bounties will be shared among participants. 

OCEAN tested a monthly high of $0.3834 on Jan. 24 after seeing its least daily volume rise from $6.6 million to the highest of $143 million. 

Within 25 days, OCEAN’s price ascended by 134% which increased its market value from $100 million to more than $220 million. 

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The Graph (GRT) is increasing due to positive market sentiment 

As an indexing protocol for querying data for networks like Ethereum, The Graph has helped power many applications in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space and the broader Web3 ecosystem. 

Renewed interest in cryptocurrency coupled with the awarding of funds to hackers by The Graph Foundation to build bold new decentralized applications (dApps) with sub-graphs has contributed to GRTs price spike. GRT, which is the novel token of the Graph lost 91% of its value in 2022. The token has impressed so far in 2023 recouping more than 70% of investor losses after opening at $0.05538 and reaching a monthly high of $0.0963 on Jan. 24. The significant rise in daily volume from $9 million to $86 million has also led to a rapid rise in market capitalization from $493 million to over $800 million. 

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Other AI and Big Data coins and tokens that have spiked in value include, but are not limited to, Singularity NET (AGIX), Phala Network (PHA), Phoenix (PHB), and Covalent (CQT), Alliance Block (ALBT).

Metaverse tokens have soared massively in the first two weeks of January with many cryptocurrencies seeing a price spike of more than 50%. 

Many analysts have attributed this to positive market sentiment for cryptocurrencies, renewed demand for non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and the quest by many individuals and companies to be a part of this growing sector. 

Decentraland (MANA), The Sandbox (SAND), Flow (FLOW), and Immutable X (IMX) are among the metaverse tokens that have brought more than 50% gains to investors. 

Decentraland (MANA) has recouped some of 2022’s losses

Decentraland is among the most recognizable metaverse platforms in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space as it allows users to experience shared digital experiences. 

MANA plunged by more than 90% in 2022 due to negative market sentiment that wiped off trillions of dollars from the crypto economy. Despite this, the token has recouped some of the losses by increasing by 145% from an opening price of $0.297 on Jan. 1 to reaching a yearly high of $0.7278 on Jan. 16. 

Much of the gains came from the introduction of new features in a tweet from Decentraland on Jan. 12. The features comprise the highlighting of avatars, new user profiles, links in profile, new friend request flow, and differentiated nametags. 

This led to an increase in trading volume which reached a daily high of $879 million on Jan. 15 which has helped push MANA’s market capitalization from $560 million to around $1.3 billion. 

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The Sandbox spikes by more than 90%

Among the tokens that plummeted by more than 90% in 2022, SAND has also made decent gains in January 2023. The token has ascended by 95% in the first two weeks of the first month of the year from $0.3831 on the opening day to a monthly and yearly high of $0.7487 on Jan. 15.

SAND has been going up this year due to updates lined up for The Sandbox’s Game Maker 0.8. According to the Sandbox, Game Maker 0.8 will bring new multiplayer gameplay features, new lighting and visual effect features, video and audio streaming, and equipment and wearable support in social hubs.

This has created an enormous excitement within the Web3 community and many stakeholders of Play-to-Earn (P2E) platforms believe this can help transform the way many people engage with the Sandbox metaverse. While the trading volume for Jan. 5 (the day of Game Maker 0.8)’s announcement was $124 million, daily trading volume has gone, and has so far reached a monthly high of $624 million on Jan. 14. As of Jan. 16, The Sandbox NFT sales for January was approximately $262,000.

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FLOW recovers 70% of its value in 15 days

The Flow blockchain which is NFT-specific has been integral to the fortunes of the NBA and NFL. NFT sales from NBA Top Shots and NFL ALL DAY have totalled $2.74 million so far in 2023 with $1.2 million and $1.5 million respectively. 

This has transcended positively on FLOW which has seen a price rise of 73% from an opening day value of $0.6535 to a monthly high of $1.15 on Jan. 15.

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IMX is up more than 50% 

IMX is the novel token of Immutable X, a platform that tags itself as powering the next generation of Web3 games. There has been a growing demand for Immutable X NFTs due to their 100% carbon-neutral feature. As of Jan. 16, more than 58 million NFTs have been minted on the platform and more than 10 million NFT trades have been made in the process. 

This has made Immutable X one of the biggest blockchains by all-time sales volume. Immutable X NFT sales have surpassed more than $300 million from the activities of over 124,000 buyers involved in more than 12 million transactions. 

The boom in the demand for NFTs being minted and renewed interest in NFTs have reflected positively on IMX’s price. The token has rose by 56% year-to-date (YTD) after opening at $0.3835 on Jan. 1 and reaching a monthly high of $0.5986 on Jan. 16. 

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Abu Dhabi-based Venom Foundation announced on Tuesday the launch of a $1 billion venture capital fund aimed at investing in blockchain start-ups including web3 decentralized applications, or dApps, and metaverse projects.

Venom Ventures Fund said it will prioritize projects “focused on long-term trends like payments, asset management, banking services,” and cryptocurrency gaming.

“We believe that by combining traditional and new finance, we can transform asset management and create long-term value for our investors,” said Venom Ventures Fund chairman Peter Knez, in a statement shared with MetaNews.

Besides investments, the fund also runs an incubation program that provides networking, “exchange support, marketing, market making, tech, legal and regulatory support,” added Knez, a former investments chief at asset manager BlackRock.

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Venom makes first metaverse foray, a $20mn bet

Venom Ventures Fund is part of the Venom Foundation, a blockchain and cryptocurrency network that is focused on investing in the Middle East and North Africa and South Asia regions (MENA), and elsewhere around the world.

The foundation received a license to operate a blockchain and issue crypto tokens from authorities in the United Arab Emirates in October last year. It claims to be the “first crypto foundation” registered in the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), a hub for fintech and innovation.

The Venom blockchain uses a technology known as “sharding”, which improves the number of transactions processed per second (TPS) while making them faster and cheaper. Venom says it can process 100,000 TPS at an average of $0.0005 per transaction.

In its statement, Venom Ventures Fund revealed it was making its “first” investment of $20 million in Nümi Metaverse, a so-called “universal platform for creators, innovators, and followers.” The firm is expected to launch what its calling a “Visual Novel” later this month.

Management says Visual Novel is “a mini-game experience with a range of special prizes for players,” as per the statement. It adds that the “Nümiverse is coming to [virtual reality] VR devices in 2023, followed by PC and mobile in 2024.”

More projects in the pipeline

Venom said the “Nümi investment is the first in the row with many more to follow in the upcoming quarters.” It stated that project founders can apply for funding through the Venom Ventures Fund website. Venom did not give details about how Venom Ventures Fund (VVF) will be financed.

The fund is led by people with background from both the traditional and cryptocurrency markets. It includes Mustafa Kheriba, executive chairman of Iceberg Capital, Kai-Uwe Steck, an attorney who manages Pontinova Circle Investment Group, and Osman Sultan, CEO of Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company.

The Venom Foundation road map includes a non-custodial wallet, a transaction scanning tool and a multi-chain bridging tool. The ecosystem will also include validator node staking pool, and a gateway to the token VenomGet.