Crypto Market Momentum – Pippin and Berachain Top the Weekly Top Gainers as Al-Agent and Layer-1 Narratives Take Out

The crypto market is in a new era of extreme volatility and renewed optimism. The market has transitioned from being focused primarily on traditional, high-volume investment instruments to emerging ecosystems and niche narrative investments. Current information from CoinMarketCap dated February 13, 2026, shows divergence between legacy assets and high-growth utility tokens. Whereas the broader marketplace is exhibiting caution, certain sub sectors, notably AI memecoins and modularly designed blockchains, are experiencing explosive triple digit appreciation due to “risk on” behavior from retail and institutional traders.

Pippin (PIPPIN) Captures the Spotlight Amid AI-Agent Mania

Pippin tops this week’s leaderboard with an incredible increase of 175.29%, giving it a value of nearly $0.49. Pippin’s explosive price increase reflects the emerging “AI-Agent” story, which connects tokens to new types of autonomous, digital personalities built on decentralized frameworks for machine learning. As these agents grow in sophistication and their ability to make intelligent transactions through smart contracts increases, speculative interest continues to rise.

Pippin is showcasing an emerging trend whereby community sponsored projects are outperforming typical blue-chip assets with a high liquidity and viral potential. PIPPIN has experienced a significant increase in market capitalization, with its value now approximately $500 million and it ranks among the top performers this week. The increasing integration of artificial intelligence in Web3’s gaming and social spaces is transforming the way individuals engage with one another.

Berachain and LayerZero Gain Ground

The speculation surrounding AI tokens has created a market that is increasingly focused on infrastructure projects. Within the crypto space, there have been large price moves this week. For example, Berachain was up over 81% to $6.80, due to the increasing popularity of their “Proof-of-Liquidity” model with DeFi developers. Additionally, both LayerZero and Stargate finance also saw an increase of almost 35% this week.

The overall growth in this sector appears to show that users are favoring flexible, multi-chain solutions rather than being tied to just one ecosystem. With the evolution of DeFi happening at a fast pace, cross-chain capabilities have become an essential part of your daily life instead of something you simply wanted.

Bitcoin SV and Established Protocols

The top five tokens are still occupied by high growth newcomers, clearly evidenced by BSV and LEO, which have gained 24.06% and 25.33% respectively during this reporting period. This suggests these tokens continue to gain acceptance, indicating capital rotation into value seeking plays rather than solely into hype cycles within older, established protocols offering high liquidity and a proven history of utility.

According to market analysts at CoinDesk, the “barbell” investment strategy, which balances high risk emerging technology with established infrastructure, seems to be effective. This strategy seems to be the best way to invest right now. The success of Monad (MON) and Convex Finance (CVX), both of which have seen significant gains compared to other cryptocurrencies, is making the trend even more obvious. The market appears to be rewarding projects that help solve specific scalability and yield optimization problems.

Conclusion

Mid-February market data shows that while the digital asset markets are continuing to mature, there is still a dynamic element to the digital asset landscape. Investors are investing additional liquidity in several different sectors as they look for projects that will connect speculative interest with real-world blockchain applications. Examples of projects in this category include tokens associated with AI, like Pippin, as well as significant types of infrastructure initiatives like Berachain and LayerZero. Over the next several months, the digital asset market will continue to grow and gain traction.