Learning from Nvidia's "selling shovels," GPU leasing becomes the new favorite in crypto AI hype
Recently, an AI token called GPU has shown strong momentum again after consolidating for nearly two weeks, continuously setting new price highs in the past few days, drawing renewed attention to its underlying protocol NodeAI. However, with the promotion from many alpha KOLs, NodeAI has maintained a high level of interest in overseas communities. Additionally, the community has detected that large whales have been buying GPU during the downturn.Author: Joyce, blockbeats
In the mainstream narrative of crypto in 2024, AI is undoubtedly the most sought-after topic aside from meme coins. Besides relatively "crypto-native" projects like Bittensor and Olas, tokens like WLD have seen their prices soar under the rising calls for "product catalysts" from OpenAI, further strengthening the connection between AI+Crypto and Silicon Valley as well as the U.S. stock market.
Recently, an AI token called GPU has shown strong momentum after consolidating for nearly two weeks, continuously reaching new price highs in the past few days, drawing renewed attention to its underlying protocol, NodeAI. However, under the promotion of many alpha KOLs, NodeAI has maintained a high level of interest in overseas communities, and the community has also detected that large whales have been buying GPU during the downturn.
According to official documentation, NodeAI focuses on the concept of "GPU leasing," allowing users to earn GPU tokens by lending their idle GPU computing power to other customers in need based on usage.
Readers familiar with Nvidia will notice that the project's logo and token name are direct references to Nvidia and its flagship products. It is not difficult to understand that the crypto market has begun to hype this "AI shitcoin" project as the "Nvidia Index." In fact, amidst the hype of AI+Crypto, NodeAI also represents a speculative logic similar to Nvidia stock NVDA, acting as a "shovel seller" in the AI wave.
Over the past year, as the AI sector has continued to heat up, GPUs produced by Nvidia have become a scarce resource in this field. As an upstream hardware supplier standing at the forefront, Nvidia's stock price has climbed above $900, astonishing everyone.
Under this "ever-profitable logic," many "shovel seller" projects have also emerged in the AI+Crypto space. Besides the aforementioned NodeAI, the most popular recent project is the decentralized GPU cloud infrastructure Aethir.
On March 20, Aethir will launch the public sale of its first network-available node, the "Check Node," with a total of 100,000 nodes available for sale, starting at a price of 0.1259 ETH per node. Within just one hour of the public sale opening, all T1-T23 level nodes of Aethir were sold out, with total sales exceeding $65 million, indicating its popularity.
Aethir is an enterprise-focused distributed GPU cloud service provider that has signed multi-year contracts with the world's largest telecommunications companies, major game development studios, 10 AAA games, and the cloud gaming company WellLink, which has over 64 million monthly active users. In July 2023, Aethir completed a Pre-A round of financing with a valuation of $150 million, with participating institutions including Hashkey, Animoca Brands, Big Brain Holdings, and Maelstrom (Arthur Hayes). ATH is the native token of the Aethir network, with 15% of its total supply allocated to reward Check Nodes for helping to verify the uptime, latency, service quality, and computing power provided by other node participants.
Of course, in addition to high-quality projects like Aethir that have strong institutional backing, many GPU leasing projects have recently emerged in the market like mushrooms after rain.
For example, DeTensor, which has seen a good increase since its recent launch, is one of them. DeTensor aims to simplify access to cloud services, nodes, and AI resources using blockchain technology. Its main business includes GPU node leasing, allowing users to rent AI servers equipped with GPU resources for specific use cases and pay monthly fees. By renting out idle GPUs through DeTensor, users can earn DETENSOR tokens. Since its launch, DETENSOR has seen over tenfold growth, but its current market cap is only $7 million.
A similar project is InfraX, whose official website describes its project in almost identical terms to NodeAI and DeTensor, yet it has also achieved a tenfold increase in the past few days, with a current market cap of around $20 million.
Like most AI projects currently on the market, "concept shitcoins" like DeTensor and InfraX, which focus on GPU leasing, generally lack any institutional backing, and their tokens adopt a fully circulating model, with initial market caps typically around $5 million. After "quietly issuing tokens," these projects often attract the favor of KOLs and achieve good short-term gains under the hype effect.
Since the beginning of this year, the hype in the AI+Crypto sector has created a vacuum window between the extremely high barriers to technological implementation and the ongoing popularity of AI concepts: investors are eager to invest in the AI sector, but quality projects with backing have yet to announce their "token issuance schedules." Under the powerful wealth creation effect of Nvidia in the U.S. stock market, these "AI shitcoins" have filled the gap in the crypto market and may continue to remain hot for the foreseeable future until the market becomes overly saturated.
Of course, due to factors such as anonymous teams and KOL insider trading, most "AI shitcoins" cannot escape the fate of going to zero, so investors should not be blinded by the "survivor bias" in the crypto market. Undoubtedly, this wave of speculation will not last forever.
