AI Agents and Altseason Take Center Stage as Tariff Talks Fade

Just weeks ago, discussions around tariffs and U.S. President Donald Trump dominated much of the chatter across major crypto forums and social platforms; however, there now seems to be a rapid shift in sentiment. Fresh data from the on-chain analytics platform Santiment has revealed a striking pivot: talk of AI agents and altcoin season is now stealing the spotlight. From Tariffs to Tech The catalyst behind the earlier conversations was Trump’s announcement in April of the imposition of harsh new tariffs on imports from some of the United States’ biggest trade partners. The move shook global markets and briefly pulled crypto into the macroeconomic storm. However, the U.S. President is teasing something very different: a “major trade deal” with a “big and highly respected country,” fueling renewed bullish sentiment across risk assets, including crypto. Nonetheless, Santiment’s social data shows engagements around the topic have ebbed, replaced by growing interest in AI agents, altseason, Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, and Real World Assets (RWA). With blockchain and artificial intelligence increasingly intersecting, AI-related crypto tokens are gaining traction. According to CoinGecko, the two biggest gainers in the crypto market in the last 24 hours are AI-focused. Agent Ted (TED), which skyrocketed 111.2% since yesterday, and almost 5,000% over the previous two weeks, powers an AI-driven sports betting platform. REVOX (REX), on the other hand, registered a 47.2% jump in its price in 24 hours. It is the native token of a platform building a shared AI interface through a permissionless machine learning infrastructure. In general, the category is up almost 5% over the past day compared to Bitcoin’s 2.5% rise in the same period. Altseason Speculation Ramps Up Talk of an impending altcoin season, when alternative crypto assets outperform BTC, is also heating up. While the flagship cryptocurrency maintains a strong market dominance at around 62%, the rise of mid-cap and AI tokens has sparked debate over whether a broader rotation into other coins is underway. Although historically, true altseasons have required a more substantial decline in Bitcoin’s dominance, the uptick in altcoin activity, paired with growing retail interest, is fueling speculation. Interestingly, this conversation has emerged with BTC pushing toward $100,000, aided by macro tailwinds, including a rate pause by the U.S. Federal Reserve and the easing of trade tensions. Additionally, mentions of crypto ETFs and RWAs have also risen slightly per Santiment’s analysis. This trend could be a reflection of ongoing experimentations with tokenizing real estate and other off-chain assets, as well as the recent good performances of spot Bitcoin ETFs led by BlackRock’s IBIT, which recently registered its second-highest inflow in a day, with its Bitcoin holdings crossing the 600,000 BTC mark soon after.