NVIDIA's financial report continues to shine. Which crypto AI projects have surged even more than NVIDIA this year?

Author: Siwei Guai Guai, BlockBeats

After the U.S. stock market closed on Wednesday, Nvidia released its highly anticipated Q2 fiscal report for 2025.

The report showed that the company achieved revenue of $30 billion in the second quarter, exceeding market expectations of $28.86 billion, and representing a year-on-year growth of 122%. The net profit was $16.59 billion, also surpassing market expectations of $14.64 billion, with a year-on-year growth of 168%. Despite the performance once again exceeding expectations, the magnitude of this "outperformance" seemed slightly insufficient under the market's high expectations for Nvidia, leading to a drop of 8% in the stock price after hours.

Although there is some uncertainty in the short-term outlook, Nvidia's stock price has risen approximately 160% since the beginning of the year, firmly maintaining its position as a market leader. Whether due to its absolute leading position in the field of artificial intelligence or its continuous expansion in the data center and high-performance computing markets, Nvidia's fundamentals remain solid. It can be said that the hype around AI is a common consensus under the wave of generative AI, and the hype around Nvidia is the "consensus of consensus." As long as the AI gold rush continues, Nvidia, as the "shovel seller," can profit effortlessly.

Nvidia's success has also driven the prosperity of crypto AI projects this year. These smaller market cap projects are often seen as "signal amplifiers" for Nvidia's market performance, with the market generally believing they can bring higher returns to investors. But do these crypto AI projects perform as expected? This article provides a detailed comparison of the top ten crypto AI projects by market cap with Nvidia's year-to-date gains, attempting to clarify the real situation. (Many small-cap crypto AI concept projects are not compared; given Nvidia's status as the second-largest tech company globally, comparing with larger market cap projects is relatively more valuable.)

It can be observed that although five crypto AI projects have seen higher gains than Nvidia this year, seemingly validating their role as "signal amplifiers" during the market's most frenzied speculation. However, when looking at the year-to-date (YTD) performance, we find that only the AI OZ Network project has outperformed Nvidia, while most other projects, after experiencing significant pullbacks, can no longer match Nvidia's performance.

Internet Computer even dropped by 41.7%, living up to its reputation. This also indicates that not all projects riding the AI narrative can gain lasting support from it. No matter how impressive a project may seem, if it lacks sustained operation and development, it is difficult to maintain long-term investor interest. In the context where project teams issue tokens and then abandon them, "hype new projects, not old ones" has almost become an iron law in the crypto market.

In contrast, Nvidia's stock price has remained relatively stable, with almost no significant pullbacks. This is not only due to its unshakeable position as an industry leader but also indicates that it has strong fundamental support behind it, in stark contrast to many crypto AI projects that rely on narratives and market enthusiasm for short-term gains.

This comparison once again reveals a chronic issue in the crypto space: when a narrative trend gradually fades, and the market refocuses on the actual value and fundamentals of projects, the real performance of many crypto projects often falls short. The gains of crypto AI projects are highly dependent on market sentiment, but only continuous technological innovation and strong team execution can support the long-term survival of a project.

Many projects that soared during the hype peak actually lack any significant technological innovation or product advantages, and some don't even have real users because they never intended for anyone to use them in the first place. When market sentiment returns to rationality, the "naked swimming" state of these projects is exposed, and speculators will quickly abandon them to seek the next narrative target to hype.

Therefore, for crypto investors, when choosing projects, it is essential not to focus solely on short-term gains and hot topics but to deeply explore the project's technology, team, ecosystem development, and community engagement. Nvidia's steady performance provides a great benchmark for investors—pursuing emerging opportunities is fine, but do not overlook those with solid fundamentals and long-term growth potential. A truly good project should withstand the test of time.