On February 4th, tensions between the US and China reached new heights as China retaliated against the US’ decision to impose a 10% tariff on Chinese goods.
In an unexpected move, Beijing introduced a 15% counter-tariff on select US products, sparking fear of a prolonged trade battle. This conflict is hitting the cryptocurrency market hard, especially AI-based projects that depend on key US tech companies.
Keep reading to see how the ongoing trade war is shaking up the AI crypto sector and what’s next for investors.
Today, the situation worsened, with reports revealing that China plans to reopen its antitrust investigation into major US tech companies, including Google and NVIDIA. In the past 24 hours, the total market capitalization of AI cryptocurrencies has dropped by over 9%.
NVIDIA Faces Rising Production Costs
NVIDIA, a major player in the AI industry, relies heavily on Chinese semiconductor components to produce its GPUs. The US tariff plan also includes a 10% tariff on Chinese semiconductor imports, which would increase the cost for NVIDIA to produce GPUs.
This could slow down the company’s ability to meet the demand for AI hardware.
If this scenario continues, AI projects that rely on high-performance computing will be the hardest hit. Investors who have heavily invested in AI companies that depend on NVIDIA’s GPUs may see setbacks. This situation could also discourage institutional investment in the AI sector, which would hurt its growth.
The AI cryptocurrency sector has seen a steep decline, with the total market cap falling by at least 9% in the last 24 hours. Over the past week, most of the top ten AI tokens have been struggling. NEAR Protocol dropped by 24.3%, Internet Computer by 19.2%, Bittensor by 24%, Render by 21.5%, Artificial Superintelligence Alliance by 22.3%, The Graph by 20.1%, Virtuals Protocol by 29.2%, Arweave by 19.9%, and AIOZ Network by 33.8%.
In just the last 24 hours, some AI tokens, including NEAR, AIOZ, and AI16Z, have experienced significant declines. NEAR dropped by 2.2%, AIOZ by 4.3%, and AI16Z by 3.2%.
NVIDIA’s stock has been under pressure, falling by 20.6% over the past 30 days. Its year-to-date performance is -14.21%, and in just the last five days, the stock has dropped by 6.14%. The ongoing trade tensions and China’s investigation into US tech companies have had a major impact on NVIDIA’s market performance.
Surprisingly, the market saw a small 1.71% increase in the last 24 hours. This unexpected rise gives some hope that the AI crypto sector may recover if the trade tensions between the US and China ease.
Experts believe that the AI crypto market could rebound quickly if the trade crisis between the US and China de-escalates. However, most analysts warn that if the conflict continues or worsens, the AI crypto sector could face even more significant losses.
There are also rumors that China may extend its investigations to other US tech giants, such as Intel and Qualcomm. If this happens, it could add further pressure on the market.
In conclusion, the AI crypto market is under serious pressure due to the US-China trade war. Tariffs and China’s legal actions have shaken investor confidence, leading to major losses in AI tokens and tech stocks like NVIDIA.
While a recovery is possible if the situation improves, prolonged tensions could lead to more losses.
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