KEY POINTS
- Musk said Grok 3 will be unveiled Monday and users can see how the chatbot works through an X live demo
- $GROK surged nearly 86% overnight following news of the Grok AI assistant's release date
- Bitcoin, $ETH, and most major altcoins were down over the weekend, with $BTC bleeding 1.1% Sunday
The cryptocurrency market was down over the weekend as Bitcoin and other major crypto assets struggled to hit the green, but GROK, a meme coin based on Elon Musk's Grok AI chatbot, was a top gainer and outperformed the crypto market Sunday.
Data from CoinGecko showed that the GROK token was up nearly 86% in the day, seemingly affected by the tech titan's announcement that Grok 3 will be unveiled Monday.
Musk Announces Grok 3 Release Date
The tech billionaire said Sunday that xAI, the artificial intelligence startup Musk founded, will showcase the Grok 3 AI assistant Monday with a live demonstration on X.
He revealed that since he will be "honing the product with the team all weekend," he will be offline until the chatbot's official release.
Musk touted Grok 3 as the "smartest AI on Earth" and is an improved version of its predecessor, the Grok 2 chatbot.
Grok 3 release with live demo on Monday night at 8pm PT.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 16, 2025
Smartest AI on Earth.
Following news of the new Grok assistant's live demo, the GROK meme coin – not related to Musk or xAI – surged and logged trading volumes at nearly $28 million in the last 24 hours.
Smaller Altcoins, Memecoins Outperform $BTC
The weekend was a time for smaller altcoins and some memecoins to shine as GROK, Pepecoin (PEP), and Golem (GLM) led the green rally.
Other top performers during the weekend were Pangolin (PNG), NetMind Token (NMT), BLOCKv (VEE), and Fullsend Community Coin (FULLSEND).
To compare the weekend top gainers' performances with much larger crypto assets, BTC was down 1.1% in the day and Ethereum (ETH) bled 0.6%.
Popular XRP decreased by 1%, and Solana (SOL) was down 2.7%. A few big crypto tokens were slightly rallying over the weekend, including BNB, which was up by 1.6%, and Cardano (ADA), which increased nearly 2%.
Still, the broader crypto market was down 2.5% in the last 24 hours, reflecting a downturn in recent weeks amid weak movements by Bitcoin and other major coins.
What is $GROK?
Meanwhile, interest around the GROK memecoin continues to grow as anticipation for Grok 3 heightens.
According to the token's development team, GROK "is establishing a community of GROK AI enthusiasts who want to save the world and love making memes while doing it."
The team did reiterate that they are not associated with X or Musk. Instead, the token was created solely on the core foundations of meme culture and is for entertainment purposes only.
