Reuters) The boom in artificial intelligence technology has literally exploded the cryptocurrency market.

The value of tokens associated with AI-focused crypto projects has soared alongside the stocks of Nvidia and other tech companies, driven by investors' insatiable appetite for applications utilizing technologies such as machine learning.

Over the past year, the growth of many AI-focused cryptocurrency tokens has even outpaced the record-breaking Bitcoin.

According to CoinGecko data, the total market capitalization of such tokens has risen to $26.4 billion from just $2.7 billion in April 2023. Just in the last 30 days, they have skyrocketed by 145-297%.

"As AI systems and blockchain networks grow, we will see more and more use cases that combine these two.

The CoinDesk Indices Computing Index, which includes AI-related tokens, has surged over 165% in the last 12 months compared to Bitcoin's growth of 151%.

According to Kaiko Research data, trading volumes of AI-related tokens have also sharply increased since the beginning of the year, reaching a historical high of $3.8 billion at the end of February.