AI Coins Crash as DeepSeek Challenges OpenAI’s Dominance

DeepSeek, a cost-effective AI model created by a Chinese AI lab under the leadership of Lian Wenfeng, has disrupted the U.S. AI industry, which has long been dominated by expensive AI models. In just the past 24 hours, the total market cap of AI coins has dropped by about 11.5%, showing the impact of this new, more affordable approach.

Almost all the top five AI coins have taken a hit. NEAR dropped by 10.8%, ICP by 8.3%, Render by 12.6%, and FET by 9.7%.

What sets DeepSeek apart is its use of fewer GPUs compared to models like OpenAI’s. This is key to making AI models not only more affordable but also more energy-efficient. It also makes these models more accessible to a wider range of developers and users.

Innovation Over High-Cost Setups

DeepSeek challenges the idea that powerful AI models require expensive GPU-heavy setups. While many U.S. AI projects, like OpenAI, use costly GPUs, DeepSeek proves that success in AI is more about innovation and efficiency than big budgets. If more models like DeepSeek emerge, the demand for GPU-heavy models could fall.

Struggles in AI and GameFi Sectors

The impact of DeepSeek is also visible in the broader AI market. For example, NodeAI has dropped by 37.2% over the past week, with a 22.9% decline in the last 24 hours.

Similarly, Aethir has experienced a drop of 17.2% in the last seven days; the token has declined by over 8.8% in the last 24 hours alone. 

GameFi Faces Similar Challenges

Experts are drawing comparisons between the decline in the AI sector and struggles in the GameFi industry. Both sectors face issues that affect their growth. Critics point out that crypto games are falling short of the performance standards set by traditional games.

As a result, investment in GameFi has dropped to around $1.8 billion in 2024, and the sector has seen a 9.2% decline in the last 24 hours.

In the GameFi space, many top tokens have been hit hard. IMX has fallen by 12.1%, SAND by 11.4%, GALA by 15.1%, AXS by 11.1%, and FLOKI by 13% in the past 24 hours.

To sum up, DeepSeek’s success shows that cost-effective, GPU-light AI models can challenge expensive setups and be just as effective. It emphasizes that innovation and efficiency, not big budgets, drive success. Meanwhile, the GameFi sector needs to improve its performance and attract more investment and users to recover from its decline.