Mentions of artificial intelligence (AI) on social media reached record highs in February 2026, with attention focused on various applications and concerns.
However, this momentum has not extended to the crypto space. The divergence highlights a clear split: while global AI interest continues to climb, decentralized AI projects and blockchain-based AI tokens are experiencing weak performance and limited visibility.
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AI Takes Center Stage Online and in Global Investment Markets
Social intelligence platform LunarCrush reported that daily social mentions of “AI” set all-time records, with distinct conversation themes. The analytics platform reported that discussions around new AI models, capabilities, and industry integration accounted for 40% of overall mindshare.
Creative use cases also represented a significant share of the conversation. AI in creative industries such as art, music, writing, and content creation captured 30% of mindshare.
Meanwhile, 20% of AI-related discussions centered on ethics and safety. These conversations focused on responsible development and deployment.
However, concerns appeared to outweigh optimism in several areas. Job displacement fears dominated sentiment, accounting for 60% of mindshare. AI misuse drove 30% of the discussion, while regulation captured 10%.
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Interest in AI extends far beyond online conversations. Investment activity reflects the same momentum. According to Crunchbase data, AI attracted nearly half of all global funding in 2025, a sharp increase from 34% in 2024.
Total funds flowing into the sector surged more than 75% year over year, rising from $114 billion invested in 2024.
“The foundation model companies have raised $80 billion in 2025 to date, representing 40% of global AI funding, per Crunchbase data. Model company funding this year has more than doubled from $31 billion in 2024, when that investment totaled about 27% of all AI funding,” the report read.
At the same time, large-scale spending is accelerating across AI infrastructure. Recently, Adani Group unveiled plans to invest $100 billion to develop renewable-energy-powered, AI-ready hyperscale data centers by 2035.
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AI Boom Leaves Crypto Tokens Behind
As momentum builds across the AI sector, one segment appears to be receiving comparatively little attention.
Noticeably, there is no major discussion of decentralized AI projects or crypto AI tokens. Blockchain AI lags as mainstream AI receives most of the enthusiasm.
The investment data points to a similar imbalance. BeInCrypto reported that during Q1 2026, Web3 funding was primarily directed toward core infrastructure and institutional-facing financial rails. The largest allocations went to stablecoin payment infrastructure, custody and trading platforms, real-world asset tokenization, and compliance tools.
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Decentralized AI projects were largely missing from the list of top-funded categories, highlighting a widening gap between the broader AI boom and blockchain-based AI development.
Market numbers reveal the AI crypto tokens’ ongoing challenge. Over the past month, every major AI-related crypto subsector tracked by CoinGecko has recorded a decline in market capitalization.
The combined market cap of leading AI crypto categories has dropped over 16%. Still, it’s worth noting that the decline comes amid a broader market downturn, which has pulled asset prices lower.
This suggests that surging global interest in AI has not translated into equivalent demand for AI-focused crypto tokens. As capital and attention concentrate on sovereign AI infrastructure, robotics, and enterprise deployment, the key question is whether blockchain-based AI projects can meaningfully capture that momentum, or whether traditional systems will continue absorbing most of the value created by the AI revolution.
