In short: Picking the theme was the easy part. Running 20 positions around it is the actual work. Twenty AI tokens, most of them dependent on speculative demand for crypto assets, can be twenty different projects and still add up to one bet on crypto liquidity. A product makes access and management simpler. It can't guarantee the thesis is right.
The Artificial Intelligence token category now sits at roughly $23 billion in market cap (CoinGecko, November 2026). A few years ago, it barely existed as a category.
Say you called it early. You figured AI would be one of the biggest investment themes of the decade.
You watched the tools get better and companies pour billions into the technology. You wanted in.
So you started researching tokens.
Some were building decentralized computing networks. Others worked on AI agents, data infrastructure, or machine learning. You added a few more that looked set to ride the same trend.
Before long, you had 20 tokens in your portfolio.
You felt ready. If AI grew, some of these had to benefit.
Then came the part nobody plans for: managing all 20.
Which projects have real users? Which tokens capture value from their networks? Are insiders selling, and when do the next unlocks hit? And what about the position that doubled: hold it, or sell and move the capital somewhere else?
Your original idea was simple: invest in the growth of AI. Your portfolio turned it into 20 separate investment decisions.
Picking the theme was the easy part. Running 20 positions around it is the actual work.
One theme creates dozens of opportunities
Go back to May 2023.
NVIDIA reported strong results and forecast a sharp jump in revenue as demand for AI computing accelerated. In a single after-hours session, NVIDIA and other AI-linked stocks added nearly $300 billion in combined market value, with roughly $200 billion of that coming from NVIDIA alone (Reuters, May 2023).
This went well beyond one company's earnings. AI was pulling demand through a whole ecosystem: chips, cloud computing, data centers, networking equipment, and the infrastructure around all of it.
If you believed in the theme, you could find opportunities in several corners of that ecosystem. But spotting a growing industry still leaves you with a question: how do you capture the opportunity without managing every position on its own?
One option is to buy individual assets and watch each one yourself. You get direct control. You also take on ongoing research, selection, and portfolio management for every holding.
The other is to start from the theme and build a structured portfolio around it. That's thematic investing.
Start with the thesis, then build the portfolio
Thematic investing starts with a view on how a trend will play out.
Maybe you think AI adoption will drive demand for computing power, data infrastructure, and autonomous software. Before buying any tokens, you map out which parts of the ecosystem matter to that view.
Your portfolio might include exposure to:
Computing: networks providing access to computing resources
Data infrastructure: projects supporting data availability, processing, or distribution
AI agents: protocols enabling autonomous software agents
Supporting infrastructure: networks and services that help the wider ecosystem operate
Every position is there for a reason. You can ask whether an asset fits the thesis, whether its token captures economic value, and whether its risk justifies the allocation. That's how a portfolio expresses a view.
A growing industry won't carry every related token with it, though. Some projects will win users and still fail to capture value. Others will lose share or fade out.
The thesis points you in a direction. Asset selection and portfolio construction decide how well you follow it.
Twenty tokens do not mean diversification
Most investors measure diversification by counting holdings. Five tokens turn into ten, ten turn into twenty, and the portfolio looks diversified.
Look at early 2022.
Bitcoin fell roughly 40% from its November 2021 peak by the first week of January, as markets priced in tighter monetary policy (Business Standard, January 2022). Assets that looked like separate opportunities were all exposed to the same shift in liquidity and risk appetite.
A portfolio of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and 18 altcoins could still get hit hard in a broad sell-off, because those assets share the same risk factors. They lean on speculative capital, react to the same market conditions, and get sold together when investors cut risk. Owning more of them doesn't shrink a risk they all have in common.
So twenty AI tokens, most of them dependent on speculative demand for crypto assets, can be twenty different projects and still add up to one bet on crypto liquidity.
Real diversification comes down to what you own, how those assets behave, and how much risk each one adds. A well-built portfolio looks at concentration, liquidity, correlation, asset quality, and anything that could drag several holdings down at once.
It can still lose money. The goal is to know which risks you're taking before you take them.
Accessing the thesis through one product
Now picture the asset selection, allocations, and management rules packaged into a single investment product.
You don't research and manage 20 positions. You get access to a portfolio designed around the theme. The product spells out what it holds, how capital is allocated, and how the portfolio is managed. Depending on how it's designed, it may also have rebalancing rules that keep the intended allocation in place as markets move.
You still need to evaluate the strategy and understand its risks. What you drop is making every individual allocation call yourself.
There's a recent example of how packaging exposure can change access to a market.
In January 2024, the United States approved spot Bitcoin ETFs. BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust reached approximately $1 billion in assets within its first four trading days (Bloomberg, January 2024). Investors who wanted Bitcoin exposure could get it through a familiar exchange-traded structure, without buying and custodying Bitcoin themselves.
A spot Bitcoin ETF holds one asset. It doesn't diversify across crypto or run a thematic strategy. What it does show is how much demand a well-designed wrapper can pull in. The same idea carries over to broader strategies and themes, as long as the underlying structure can support them.
What a well-designed product offers
Simpler access. One product, instead of sourcing and managing every underlying asset yourself.
A clear mandate. The product states its objective, eligible assets, allocation rules, and when holdings can change.
A consistent process. If the strategy includes active management or systematic rebalancing, the portfolio follows a set process as markets shift.
Time back for the thesis. You evaluate the opportunity and the strategy, and skip doing every portfolio-management task by hand.
One coherent position. A defined structure, a reporting process, and one set of investment terms, instead of a scatter of separate holdings.
All of this hinges on the actual design. Fees, liquidity, custody, execution, transparency, and management quality all matter. Wrapping 20 poorly chosen tokens into one product doesn't make them a good investment. The underlying portfolio still has to make sense.
A product cannot remove investment risk
A product makes access and management simpler. It can't guarantee the thesis is right.
An AI-themed portfolio can underperform even while AI adoption grows. The assets might be overpriced, competition might eat into their value, or the tokens might never capture the economics of the industry.
Before you invest, find out what the product owns, how its strategy works, what fees apply, how assets are held, how redemptions work, and what happens when the strategy loses money.
With onchain products, check transparency first: holdings, portfolio changes, and where returns come from.
Where Alloco comes in
At Alloco, we think investment ideas get more useful once they're turned into structured products.
It starts with something we notice in the market. AI infrastructure is attracting capital. Tokenized assets are expanding. A particular strategy is getting attention. Public-market data points to something worth digging into.
That observation becomes an investment thesis. The thesis shapes a portfolio, the portfolio follows a defined strategy, and the strategy gets packaged into a product investors can access.
That's the thinking behind our approach to onchain investment products, including ETFTs, which we covered in our previous article.
Market insight → Investment thesis → Portfolio → Product → Investor
FAQ
Do 20 tokens make a diversified portfolio?
Not necessarily. Twenty AI tokens, most of them dependent on speculative demand for crypto assets, can be twenty different projects and still add up to one bet on crypto liquidity. Real diversification comes down to what you own, how those assets behave, and how much risk each one adds.
What is thematic investing?
Thematic investing starts with a view on how a trend will play out. Instead of buying individual assets and watching each one yourself, you start from the theme and build a structured portfolio around it.
Can an investment product remove investment risk?
No. A product makes access and management simpler. It can't guarantee the thesis is right. An AI-themed portfolio can underperform even while AI adoption grows.
Related reading
ETFT is Alloco's product terminology. It does not mean that a product is a registered ETF, listed on a securities exchange, or approved by a regulator. ETFTs are not bank deposits. Capital, investment returns, redemption timing, and secondary-market liquidity are not guaranteed. Product values may fall, and holders may lose some or all of their investment. This article provides general product information, not personalized investment, legal, or tax advice.
Powered by Mole. AI Agent for SEO & GEO