3 AI Tokens Poised to Dominate September – These Could Define the Entire Market

AI tokens are heating up—and these three projects are leading the charge.

Market momentum is shifting as institutional money eyes blockchain-based artificial intelligence. While traditional finance still debates whether AI is a bubble, crypto isn’t waiting around.

Top contenders showing strength

One token’s recent surge hints at growing confidence in decentralized machine learning. Another just secured a major partnership, pushing its tech into real-world use. The third? Quietly building—until now.

Timing is everything. With Q4 approaching, smart money is positioning early. As one trader put it: “If you’re not in before the crowd, you’re just funding their exit.”

Keep an eye on volume, watch for breakouts, and maybe—just maybe—ignore the usual Wall Street hype. After all, since when did they ever get tech right first?

Key Takeaways

Markets hinted at a September rally, with AI tokens at the core. Weekly gains reinforced Optimism despite muted daily moves.

Artificial Intelligence [AI] tokens held their market cap above $33 billion, with a daily change under 1%. This came as $1.90 billion in capitalization was added while traders turned to AI tools.

While singling out Story [IP], AMBCrypto observed that its Futures Taker CVD data from CryptoQuant showed buyer dominance in derivatives. On the other hand, Spot Volume dropped by 20% fall.

Source: CryptoQuant

IP led the AI tokens sector with an 18% surge over the last 24 hours.

Virtual Protocol [VIRTUAL], Render [RENDER], and NEAR Protocol [NEAR] were among the weekly performers despite the slowdown on the day.

These large caps declined as capital rotated to newer coins like Flock [FLOCK]. However, these new entrants struggled to sustain capital inflow.

For instance, FLOCK dropped 17% after the previous day’s 69% rally. Still, it was up 39% on the weekly charts.

Institutions fuel AI tokens’ September momentum

The month of September was expected to be big for the finance sector as institutions poured more capital into the AI and big data sectors.

For instance, EcoData upped its ante with a $703 million addition as per a Bloomberg report, aiming to increase the size of its AI data centres. This followed an underperforming H1 2025 by Fully Diluted Value (FDV).

On the chart below, we can observe that in the last month, the AI crypto sector reclaimed the top with a 17.4% rise, while exchange tokens came second with 11.5% as highlighted by Crypto Rand.

This asserted conviction that the sector was making a comeback.

Source: Artemis

In terms of upcoming performances, Bittensor [TAO], NEAR, and Internet Computer [ICP], which were the top-capped, were slated for gains in the second half of the year.

Speaking of gains, AI tokens’ capitalization could hit $47 billion by 2034, a 39% increase from the current mark, according to a prediction by CoachTy. He cited Grok 4’s 17% user growth since mid-2025.

Also worth mentioning is the increasing adoption of AI Agents for repetitive professional tasks, which means that the sector has real utility. Gaming, DePIN, and memecoins also integrated AI features, with several assets in breakout phases.

NEAR’s breakout shows buyer strength

NEAR’s 3-hour chart confirmed the breakout as it breached a mid-August trendline after an MA cross at $2.41.

The volume traded was over the roof, roughly $569 million, the highest in the last month. The Awesome Oscillator reading of 0.13 indicated buyer control.

Even so, bulls lost momentum after rejection at $2.80.

Source: TradingView

NEAR traded at $2.66, with resistance seen at $3.10 if buyers hold. This outlook was reflected across this sector, suggesting potential gains in the coming sessions.

Still, traders needed to exercise caution as the sector was among the most affected when prices fell hard.