BlockBeats news: On January 6, amid Bitcoin maintaining a price above $93,000, capital in the cryptocurrency market is shifting from meme coins to tokens with practical applications, among which AI-related tokens have shown the most outstanding performance.
Data shows that within the past 24 hours, multiple functional indices on CoinDesk—including DeFi, the metaverse, and the non-Bitcoin comprehensive index—have all risen by more than 4%. Meanwhile, the Meme coin index has remained largely flat or slightly declined, indicating that market risk preferences are returning to "sectors with fundamental value."
The decentralized GPU computing platform Render Network (RENDER) rose by about 20% in 24 hours, becoming the best-performing token among the top 100 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. Mid-sized and smaller AI tokens, such as Virtuals Protocol, also recorded gains of over 6%. Sui (SUI) surged more than 15%, while XRP climbed approximately 10%, reaching a two-month high. In contrast, Solana (SOL) remains within a multi-month consolidation range.
Analysts noted that the above trend is consistent with the optimistic sentiment in U.S. stock markets toward AI and high-beta tech stocks. However, geopolitical risks and the upcoming U.S. nonfarm payrolls data could still affect market sentiment. In addition, several analysts believe that further gains in the cryptocurrency market still depend on continued inflows into Bitcoin ETFs. Data shows that in the first two trading days of 2026, Bitcoin ETFs recorded a net inflow of over $1 billion.