Daily Degen
April 20, 2025

AI Coins Lead While Theta Falters in Weekend Whipsaw

The crypto market spun into classic weekend volatility—but this time, it’s AI coins rising from the shadows while streaming and DeFi tokens took the hit. Here's a breakdown of the big movers, the social media buzz, and what might be unfolding under the radar.

AI and data infrastructure tokens stole the spotlight this weekend, with AIC, TAO, and FET posting notable gains amid growing trader interest in decentralized AI. Meanwhile, streaming protocol tokens like Theta and TFUEL stumbled, echoing a narrative shift away from content delivery and toward processing power.

Movers and Shakers

Today's Top Gainers:
Top 7-Day Gainers:
AIC (26.98%), TAO (12.74%), FET (6.965%), TEL (6.882%), NOT (6.670%)
Today's Top Losers:
Top 7-Day Losers:
T (-9.31%), TFUEL (-8.32%), OM (-8.18%), BTSE (-7.29%), MOVE (-5.38%)

Weekend Whipsaw: The Crypto Boom in AI vs. the Slide in Streaming

Another weekend, another wave of volatility across the crypto landscape—but this time, it’s the robots and not the memes doing the heavy lifting. With AIC pumping 26.98% and TAO grabbing a healthy 12.74%, the directional shift in trader sentiment is pointing straight at AI and data-layer tokens. It’s as if OpenAI held a secret token conference and forgot to send out the invites.


Top Gainers: AI + Infrastructure = Moontime

Leading the charge was AIC, rallying nearly 27%. Despite the sparse info on this low-cap token, speculation ran wild across Twitter/X and Discord, where crypto sleuths linked AIC to a rumored partnership with a data-sharing middleware for AI models. No confirmations yet, but that didn’t stop the breakout.

Also in the bright green: TAO (12.74%), which continues its march as the go-to Layer-1 for machine learning tasks. Coupled with FET (6.97%)—the OG of AI-coins—this weekend’s action felt like a freshly stocked GPU warehouse: buzzing with potential.

Notably, TEL (6.88%) and NOT (6.67%) quietly joined the parade. TEL, the telecom-layer transfer token, is rumored to land a partnership with an APAC mobile operator. NOT, on the other hand, remains a mystery-meme that’s trading like it knows something we don’t.


Top Losers: Content Chains Lose Signal

While the AI crowd was popping champagne over training clusters and cloud integrations, legacy content coins were getting wrecked. Leading the loser board was T (-9.31%), Theta Network’s governance coin.

Theta’s pain trickled down to its gas token, TFUEL (-8.32%). Both saw plummeting TVL on-chain, while sentiment across forums called out the “dwindling dev activity” and “streamer apathy.” Whether this is a short-term shakeout or the beginning of long-term obsolescence is still TBD, but the narrative has lost serious bandwidth.

Other tokens in crypto purgatory included OM (-8.18%) from MANTRA DAO, BTSE (-7.29%), and MOVE (-5.38%)—a DeFi experiment whose volume now trades like it’s allergic to liquidity.


Twitter Buzz: AI Chatter at Fever Pitch

Crypto Twitter wasn’t just watching—it was frothing at the mouth over AI-related plays. Traders like @DeFiEnsider and @AltcoinSnowden posted mega-threads outlining promising intersections between decentralized compute and GPT-5 rumors. FET fanatics shared screenshots of “AI Agents” querying decentralized networks, which, real or not, fed the flames and liquidity pools alike.

Meanwhile, posts dunking on Theta's “Web3 Netflix” concept abounded. In an age of TikTok short bursts, long-form video protocols face brand fatigue. It’s a content war out there—and the attention economy just reallocated its capital.


Sector Snapshot: Why AI’s Winning This Battle

Zooming out: macro narratives are subtly aligning with the AI data sector. From Nvidia's monster earnings beat to chatter of a decentralized GPT marketplace, everything’s fueling a speculative layer atop crypto infrastructure projects. The speculative pivot is slowly moving from coins with meme value to tokens with narrative plus plausible tech application. That combo? Deadly in a bullish environment.


Volatility Watch: Opportunity or Trap?

Historically, weekends invite wilder price swings in illiquid altcoins—and this weekend confirmed that trope. However, the bifurcation is more than noise: it hints at a reshuffling of trader focus from NFT-heavy, media-based chains to use-case-rich, data-processing platforms.

If this trend holds, we might see a migration of on-chain activity too. Already, gas fees on data-focused chains edged up 9–13% since Friday—suggesting real traction behind the price action.


Conclusion: Follow the Robots, Not the Cameras

The market’s speaking clearly: it wants AI-native infrastructure, not decentralized YouTube clones. While this could be a mini-rotation before the next meme wave, the fundamentals—developer interest, token velocity, and volume—are all backing AI’s continued moon mission. Keep your eyes on the chains processing data, not just storing it.

Weekend Whipsaw: The Crypto Boom in AI vs. the Slide in Streaming

Another weekend, another wave of volatility across the crypto landscape—but this time, it’s the robots and not the memes doing the heavy lifting. With AIC pumping 26.98% and TAO grabbing a healthy 12.74%, the directional shift in trader sentiment is pointing straight at AI and data-layer tokens. It’s as if OpenAI held a secret token conference and forgot to send out the invites.


Top Gainers: AI + Infrastructure = Moontime

Leading the charge was AIC, rallying nearly 27%. Despite the sparse info on this low-cap token, speculation ran wild across Twitter/X and Discord, where crypto sleuths linked AIC to a rumored partnership with a data-sharing middleware for AI models. No confirmations yet, but that didn’t stop the breakout.

Also in the bright green: TAO (12.74%), which continues its march as the go-to Layer-1 for machine learning tasks. Coupled with FET (6.97%)—the OG of AI-coins—this weekend’s action felt like a freshly stocked GPU warehouse: buzzing with potential.

Notably, TEL (6.88%) and NOT (6.67%) quietly joined the parade. TEL, the telecom-layer transfer token, is rumored to land a partnership with an APAC mobile operator. NOT, on the other hand, remains a mystery-meme that’s trading like it knows something we don’t.


Top Losers: Content Chains Lose Signal

While the AI crowd was popping champagne over training clusters and cloud integrations, legacy content coins were getting wrecked. Leading the loser board was T (-9.31%), Theta Network’s governance coin.

Theta’s pain trickled down to its gas token, TFUEL (-8.32%). Both saw plummeting TVL on-chain, while sentiment across forums called out the “dwindling dev activity” and “streamer apathy.” Whether this is a short-term shakeout or the beginning of long-term obsolescence is still TBD, but the narrative has lost serious bandwidth.

Other tokens in crypto purgatory included OM (-8.18%) from MANTRA DAO, BTSE (-7.29%), and MOVE (-5.38%)—a DeFi experiment whose volume now trades like it’s allergic to liquidity.


Twitter Buzz: AI Chatter at Fever Pitch

Crypto Twitter wasn’t just watching—it was frothing at the mouth over AI-related plays. Traders like @DeFiEnsider and @AltcoinSnowden posted mega-threads outlining promising intersections between decentralized compute and GPT-5 rumors. FET fanatics shared screenshots of “AI Agents” querying decentralized networks, which, real or not, fed the flames and liquidity pools alike.

Meanwhile, posts dunking on Theta's “Web3 Netflix” concept abounded. In an age of TikTok short bursts, long-form video protocols face brand fatigue. It’s a content war out there—and the attention economy just reallocated its capital.


Sector Snapshot: Why AI’s Winning This Battle

Zooming out: macro narratives are subtly aligning with the AI data sector. From Nvidia's monster earnings beat to chatter of a decentralized GPT marketplace, everything’s fueling a speculative layer atop crypto infrastructure projects. The speculative pivot is slowly moving from coins with meme value to tokens with narrative plus plausible tech application. That combo? Deadly in a bullish environment.


Volatility Watch: Opportunity or Trap?

Historically, weekends invite wilder price swings in illiquid altcoins—and this weekend confirmed that trope. However, the bifurcation is more than noise: it hints at a reshuffling of trader focus from NFT-heavy, media-based chains to use-case-rich, data-processing platforms.

If this trend holds, we might see a migration of on-chain activity too. Already, gas fees on data-focused chains edged up 9–13% since Friday—suggesting real traction behind the price action.


Conclusion: Follow the Robots, Not the Cameras

The market’s speaking clearly: it wants AI-native infrastructure, not decentralized YouTube clones. While this could be a mini-rotation before the next meme wave, the fundamentals—developer interest, token velocity, and volume—are all backing AI’s continued moon mission. Keep your eyes on the chains processing data, not just storing it.

Newsworthy

AIC surges nearly 27% on speculative AI infrastructure rumors while Theta Network drops over 9% amid waning developer activity and content saturation fears.

Pro-Tip:

Use market weekends to spot directional rotation—volume spikes in niche tokens like AIC and TAO often front-run bigger exchange listings or narrative adoption. Track fund flows and gas fee behavior for stronger confirmation.

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