Cryptocurrencies continued to underperform traditional assets like stocks and gold in early October 2025, with AI-linked tokens bearing the brunt of a market selloff. The latest disruption came as Ocean Protocol announced its exit from the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (ASI), triggering a 21.5% monthly decline in Fetch.ai's (FET) price, as the CoinEdition article reported. The move, which followed the resignation of Ocean's directors from the ASI board, marks a strategic pivot toward independent governance and data-economy infrastructure, the CoinEdition article added.
Ocean Protocol's departure from the ASI alliance—formed with Fetch.ai and SingularityNET—has fractured a once-promising collaboration aimed at unifying AI and blockchain ecosystems. The project plans to refocus on self-contained tokenomics, including a buyback-and-burn program funded by ecosystem profits, according to the CoinEdition article. Approximately 81% of OCEAN's supply has already been converted to FETFET--, but 270 million tokens remain unconverted across 37,000 wallets, the CoinEdition article noted. Holders can still swap OCEAN for FET at a rate of 1:0.433226 on major exchanges until the final conversion phase, per the CoinEdition article.
The split sent ripples through the market. While FET tumbled, OCEAN surged 30% in the wake of the announcement, reflecting divergent investor sentiment, according to a CCN analysis. Analysts attributed FET's decline to both fundamental concerns—such as the loss of Ocean's data partnership—and technical breakdowns, with the token now trading near $0.31, its lowest level in two years, as discussed in a 99Bitcoins article. Meanwhile, OCEAN's price briefly hit $0.345, though it remains below key resistance levels, the CCN analysis observed.
The broader altcoin market mirrored FET's struggles. The Altcoin Season Index, which measures the performance of the top 100 cryptocurrencies against BitcoinBTC-- over 90 days, fell to 34/100, indicating a "Bitcoin Season" trend, according to a MEXC update. This follows a 90-day period where only 12 altcoins outperformed BTCBTC--, led by MYX (+3,975.47%) and ASTERASTER-- (+1,461.28%), MEXC added. Bitcoin itself dropped 7.73% during the same period, per MEXC, yet its dominance in derivatives markets grew as the CME overtook Binance in BTC futures open interest, as a CryptoNews report noted.
Hyperliquid, the leading decentralized derivatives platform, saw a $140 million BTC short opened by a whale address, 0xc2a3, as reported in a CoinDesk report, amplifying bearish sentiment. The platform now commands 80% of DeFi perpetual contracts market share, CryptoNews reported, with its Auto-Deleveraging mechanism exacerbating liquidations during volatile swings, as another CoinDesk feature described.
The sell-off in AI tokens like FET aligns with warnings from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which cautioned that a bursting AI-driven crypto bubble could mirror the dotcom crash, the CoinDesk report warned. This comes as BittensorTAO-- (TAO) emerged as a rival to ASI, with its price surging to $444 and a $4.4 billion market cap, the 99Bitcoins article observed. TAO's upcoming halving in December 2025, which will halve daily issuance, has further fueled speculation about its dominance in decentralized AI computing, the 99Bitcoins article added.
The ASI alliance's fragmentation highlights the challenges of merging blockchain and AI ecosystems. While Ocean Protocol and Fetch.ai pivot toward independent strategies, the market remains fragmented between regulated institutions favoring CME and decentralized platforms like Hyperliquid, as CryptoNews reported. For altcoin season to return, analysts point to clearer roadmaps, stable tokenomics, and renewed institutional interest in AI-driven projects, according to a CryptoNews analysis.
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