Artificial intelligence (AI) coins faced an unexpected setback as Nvidia’s highly anticipated GPU Technology Conference (GTC) failed to ignite the enthusiasm investors had hoped for.

Despite the unveiling of Nvidia’s latest AI chips, the AI cryptocurrency market saw a decline of 2.8%. Meanwhile, Nvidia’s own stock also took a hit.

AI Crypto Tokens Slide as Nvidia CEO Unveils Next-Gen Chips in Conference

The Nvidia GTC conference in San Jose, California, has long been a pivotal event for the tech and AI industries, often serving as a catalyst for market movements. This year, expectations were high as CEO Jensen Huang took the stage on March 18 to showcase Nvidia’s next-generation AI chips.

This included the Blackwell Ultra, set for release in the second half of 2025. Huang also provided a glimpse into the company’s roadmap with the Vera Rubin and Rubin Ultra chips slated for 2026 and 2027, respectively. 

He emphasized the chips’ capabilities in advancing AI reasoning and agentic AI—systems designed to plan and act autonomously—positioning Nvidia as a leader in the AI space.

“These last two to three years have seen a fundamental breakthrough in AI. We call it agentic AI,” Huang said.

The CEO previously highlighted the potential of AI agents, predicting it to become a multi-trillion-dollar opportunity. This remark sparked a surge in AI agent tokens.

In fact, AI tokens saw significant gains following Nvidia’s impressive fourth-quarter earnings report in February. Thus, investors hoped for a similar impact from the conference. Yet, this time, the unveiling of new hardware failed to replicate that momentum.

While eight of the top 10 AI coins saw small gains, it wasn’t much. Additionally, the latest data revealed a 2.8% decline in the total market capitalization of AI-related cryptocurrencies following the keynote. Among the sectors, AI Applications experienced the steepest drop, posting a double-digit decline of 17.6%. 

Other affected sectors included AI Agent Launchpad, which saw a decrease of 9.5%, and AI Agents, which dipped by 7.7%. In addition, the AI Framework sector fell by 2.1%. The Bittensor Ecosystem also faced a decline, albeit smaller, at 1.7%.

Nvidia’s stock (NVDA) mirrored the broader sector’s disappointment. According to Google Finance, the shares fell 3.4% on Tuesday, contributing to a year-to-date decline of 14.0%. 

The drop came amid a broader market rout, with tech stocks facing pressure from macroeconomic uncertainty and shifting investor sentiment.

The emergence of competitors, such as China’s DeepSeek, which claimed to have built a cost-effective AI chatbot earlier this year, may also be weighing on sentiment, raising questions about Nvidia’s unchallenged dominance and impact in the AI sector.