Fetch.ai crowned fastest growing crypto on eToro in Q1 2024 as investors search for crypto’s AI whale

• ai jumps 13 places as the top crypto riser on eToro’s platform this quarter with investors rallying for decentralized AI
• NEO, Terra Classic and Maker see the biggest drops as investors lock in profits
• Smaller tokens gaining double-digit growth thanks to investors backing emerging blockchain-based technologies

Crypto investors have shown their faith in decentralized artificial intelligence (DAI) with Fetch.ai seeing the biggest proportionate rise in eToro holders in the first quarter of 2024, according to the latest data from trading and investing platform eToro.

Fetch.ai, the native token of the eponymous decentralized platform for the development and monetization of AI applications, saw an 94% increase in holders in Q1, jumping 13 places to become the 33rd most held cryptoasset on the eToro platform at the end of Q1. Fetch.ai announced last week that it will be merging with SingularityNET and Ocean Protocol to launch a combined token called ASI (an acronym for artificial superintelligence) in an effort to join forces in the race against big tech firms to develop DAI on the blockchain.

Other cryptoassets with significant Q1 action included Arbitrum and Immutable X, which are both layer-two scaling solutions in the Ethereum network, acquiring 73% and 57% more holders respectively. The top ten risers represent a range of blockchain technologies, such as decentralized video streaming (Livepeer, 7th) and AI-compatible scaling solutions (Skale Network, 6th).

Table 1: Cryptoassets with biggest proportional increase in holders quarter on quarter

Source: eToro platform data, 00.00am April 2nd 2024

Simon Peters, Crypto Market Analyst at eToro, said: “As AI hype continues to dominate, many investors are looking for the next ‘Nvidia’ in crypto by getting behind fledgling blockchain projects. This quarter’s top riser Fetch.ai is a prime example as its price has surged nearly fivefold since the beginning of the year.

 “Since the approval of bitcoin spot ETFs in January, there has been heightened interest in not only big names like bitcoin, but also smaller tokens in the cryptosphere. The double-digit rise of open positions in these coins signifies that investors are looking to diversify their crypto portfolios by buying cheaper, lesser-known coins with the expectation that their prices will go up.”

The cryptos that lost the most holders in the last three months proportionally were NEO (-23%), Terra Classic (-18%) and Maker (-12%). All three saw price rallies in the last three months, which likely led many investors to take profits.

Bitcoin, Cardano and Ethereum maintained their positions as the top three most held cryptoassets on the eToro platform globally (table 2) and in Romania (table 3). eToro’s Retail Investor Beat, a global quarterly survey of 10,000 retail investors, found that crypto is the asset class that respondents are most likely to increase their investments in during , with 15% saying they will prioritise it over other asset classes.

Over 55% of Romanian investors are owning cryptos in their portfolios and 23% are planning to increase their crypto holdings.

Besides purchasing real assets, investors have sought other ways of benefiting from the ongoing bitcoin price rally, as the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) is now the 7th most held ETF on the eToro platform.

Table 2: Most widely held cryptoassets on eToro globally

Source: eToro platform data, 00.00am April 2nd 2024

 Table 3: Most widely held cryptoassets on eToro platform by Romanian investors

Source: eToro platform data, 00.00am April 2nd 2024