Before Monday's open, here's something wild: NEAR surged 11.2% in a single day yesterday, to $5.88, making it the standout among the top 30 cryptocurrencies (Basis Desk, 10/11 closing data).

What makes it wild? Just three days ago, AI stocks were getting hammered. OpenAI gave investors a reality check: annualized revenue was about $50 billion at the end of September, versus the $68 billion previously rumored by the market—a shortfall of nearly 30%. Where did the extra $18 billion come from? According to people familiar with the matter, it included revenue from partners (European Financial Review).

As soon as the news broke, AI stocks got hammered: Nvidia fell 3%, Oracle 6%, and CoreWeave 8%, while AMD, Broadcom and Intel all got caught up in the sell-off (on earnings day, several reports cited CNBC). The Nasdaq also logged its worst day since mid-August (FNArena's Monday recap).

By all logic, AI coins should be getting hit too, since they literally have AI in the name. But this played out differently: $NEAR didn’t rally on an AI narrative at all—it surged because shorts got liquidated. On 10/11, it wiped out $4.92 million in short positions within an hour (Pluang data), with the price climbing from $5.33 to above $5.70. Looking further back, it was up 118% over 30 days (CoinGecko), and Bitwise’s NEAR ETF launched in late September, attracting $58.9 million in its first week (CoinMarketCap data).

TAO was much the same: holding at $295, up 3.6% in 24 hours (cross-checked against Finnhub and Gate TR). While NVIDIA was taking a beating, TAO didn’t even bat an eyelid.

So there are two versions of this story. The U.S. stocks version: OpenAI’s numbers shrank, and people started wondering how many players the AI pie can really support. The crypto version: whether the valuation logic makes sense or not, we can still rally by liquidating shorts. Don’t rush to call it a decoupling, though. Bloomberg floated another report in premarket trading on Monday: OpenAI is projected to exceed $70 billion in revenue by year-end, and buyers have already returned to Oracle and Microsoft. If sentiment shifts, who knows how long AI coins can keep up this image of not caring about U.S. stocks.

But one thing needs saying upfront: a rally like NEAR’s, driven by short liquidations, looks great—but think carefully before chasing it.