The cryptocurrency market saw a sharp divergence on Tuesday as AI-focused tokens surged while real-world asset (RWA) platforms faced steep declines. SKYAI, a token riding the agentic AI narrative, soared 44.45% to $0.5792, making it the top gainer among the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap. In contrast, Ondo Finance’s ONDO token tumbled 10.28% to $0.3908, highlighting a clear rotation from RWA and yield infrastructure into AI-adjacent assets.
Other AI-linked tokens also posted strong gains. BUILDon rose 15.32% to $0.6454, and Humanity climbed 13.06% to $0.2646. Injective added 7.06% to $4.66, while JUST increased by 2.95% to $0.08974. This broad-based advance among AI and DeFi tooling tokens suggests capital is flowing from established large-caps into higher-beta mid and small-cap projects, a pattern often seen during early altseason phases. Analysts have noted that such rotations are driven by speculation around emerging narratives like agentic AI, which is projected to grow from $7.29 billion in 2025 to $139.19 billion by 2034.
The losses on Tuesday were concentrated among RWA and yield infrastructure tokens. Aerodrome Finance dropped 10.16% to $0.4725, Ethena fell 7.57% to $0.1204, Sei declined 7.03% to $0.0695, and Virtuals Protocol slid 6.99% to $0.8131. For ONDO, the 10% sell-off came despite a series of positive announcements, including the bridging of 35 tokenized assets to Hyperliquid’s HyperEVM and participation in Ripple’s tokenized Treasury settlement test. Traders appeared to be engaging in a “buy the rumor, sell the news” pattern, rotating profits into higher-momentum plays like SKYAI.
The divergent fortunes of SKYAI and ONDO underscore a broader market trend where investors are differentiating between projects with durable infrastructure narratives and those treated as pure momentum plays. While SKYAI’s surge reflects growing institutional interest in AI-driven crypto solutions, ONDO’s decline may represent healthy consolidation after a strong run, given its fundamental advancements in tokenizing traditional assets.