AI News: Sector Extends Slide as Brutal November Hits Risk Assets

COIN +1.32% BTC-USD +6.77% JPY=X -0.08%

TL;DR:

• Macro: BTC's brutal November; yen carry unwind and leverage crush risk assets.

• AI sector: mcap down 7.3%, top tokens bleed while TAO leads.

• Small-cap AI agents outperform; Coinbase, Virtuals, and GraphAI keep builders busy.

Bitcoin (BTC) just suffered one of its worst Novembers in history and is currently on pace to record the second-worst Q4 since inception.

The reasons behind this move are multifaceted but broadly relate to the potential unwinding of the yen-dollar carry trade and its negative impact on risk markets, as well as a confluence of buyer exhaustion and excess leverage.

This has spilled over into altcoin sectors, which were hit particularly hard due to their reduced liquidity.

Against that backdrop, here’s how the AI sector has evolved since our last update.

AI Market Recap

Following a brief rally last week, the AI sector has now resumed its downtrend. The sector shrank by 7.3% as a further $1.5 billion was shed from its market capitalization (mcap).

In line with this, the great majority of AI tokens are down this week, with the 10 largest AI tokens all steeped in red.

Source: Top AI Tokens Page

During this period, Bittensor (TAO) further cemented its position as the largest AI token after Near Protocol (NEAR) saw one of its worst weekly declines on record.

The Bittensor emissions halving event is now less than two weeks away. But this has not (yet?) translated into increased accumulation by long-term speculators.

Though most AI tokens were hit hard this week, a handful of smaller tokens managed to buck the trend and record impressive growth. This week’s biggest winners include:

• Tradoor (TRADOOR): +105.7%

• GRIFFAIN (GRIFFAIN): +54%

• Turbo (TURBO): +33%

• INFINIT (IN): +30.1%

As you might notice, many of this week’s best performers are also captured under the AI agent subsector.

The trending list proved to be a treasure trove of alpha this week, with seven of this week's most trending tokens recording gains. Tokens with a sub-$100 million market cap are featured heavily.

The AI sector was hit harder than most this week, ranking 16th out of the 24 sectors tracked by Artemis when it comes to change in the fully diluted mcap.

Source: Artemis

AI News Roundup

See below for a recap of this week’s most significant AI news headlines.

Coinbase Ventures Doubles Down on AI, RWA and Next-Gen DeFi: Coinbase Ventures outlined its 2026 roadmap, prioritizing AI-powered crypto infrastructure, RWA perpetuals, and next-gen DeFi, signaling sustained investor focus on AI agents, robotics, and on-chain tooling despite the current risk-off backdrop. (source)

Virtuals Protocol Overhauls Security After Rogue AI Agent Exploit: Virtuals Protocol confirmed that a rogue AI agent siphoned roughly $500K via its Agent Commerce Protocol, prompting compensation plans and a renewed focus on security while maintaining resilient token performance and continued expansion across chains.

https://twitter.com/virtuals_io/status/1992954577503625464

GraphAI Integrates Fetch.ai’s ASI:One On-Chain for AI Data Agents: GraphAI integrated Fetch.ai’s ASI:One LLM directly into its GraphEngine, enabling natural-language queries over live on-chain data and cementing ASI:One as core infrastructure for developers building AI agents on Web3 rails.

https://twitter.com/Fetch_ai/status/1994746163514183949

>> That’s a wrap for today’s update. Check in next week for another dose of AI news and developments.